Self-Regulation in Error Management Training: Emotion Control and Metacognition as Mediators of Performance Effects.

Abstract

In error management training, participants are explicitly encouraged to make errors and learn from them. Error management training has frequently been shown to lead to better performance than conventional trainings that adopt an error avoidant approach. The present study investigated self-regulatory processes mediating this effect. Fifty-five volunteer students learned a computer program under 1 of 3 conditions: error avoidant training, error management training, or error management training supplemented with a metacognitive module. As predicted, both forms of error management training led to better transfer performance than did error avoidant training (d ϭ 0.75). Mediation hypotheses were fully supported: Emotion control and metacognitive activity (from verbal protocols) mediated performance differences. These findings highlight the potential of promoting self-regulatory processing during training.

Negative Knowledge: Understanding Professional Learning and Expertise

“…Therefore, to support such learning to happen in work contexts, vocational education programs should give trainees opportunities to experience authentic, complex and challenging errors, to learn from them and to thus build up negative knowledge. An interesting approach in this respect is error management training (Keith and Frese 2005;Nordstrom et al 1998). In this form of training, errors are encouraged and consciously utilized as an integral part of learning processes.…”

“…In this form of training, errors are encouraged and consciously utilized as an integral part of learning processes. Studies have shown the beneficial effects of this form of training in terms of actual performance after the training, especially when complex tasks are to be developed (Keith and Frese 2005). The concept of negative knowledge and the error management training approach could be fruitfully combined in different ways.…”

Organizational Error Management Culture and Its Impact on Performance: A Two-Study Replication.

“…Errors may represent a form of negative feedback (i.e., one has not achieved a goal) and, as such, present the individual with valuable information about how to alter one's course of action to ultimately achieve a goal. Learning takes place when people are encouraged to learn from errors (Heimbeck, Frese, Sonnentag, & Keith, 2003), when they think about errors metacognitively (e.g., planning, monitoring, and evaluating one's actions), and when the negative emotional impact of errors is reduced (Keith & Frese, 2005). One may be tempted to suggest presenting hypothetical errors (i.e., errors that have not occurred) to learn from them (March, 1991).…”

Opportunity, Motivation, and Ability to Learn from Failures and Errors: Review, Synthesis, and Ways to Move Forward

“…The author explains this effect by suggesting that the strength of emotions matters, not just whether an emotion is negative, and negative emotion only affects learning above a relatively high threshold. If the strength of emotion matters, the finding that managerial error intolerance increases negative emotions suggests that managers' attitudes can push staff into non-learning (Keith & Frese, 2005).…”