Error modeling

[ERIK M. ALTMANN]

> Don Norman has noted that there are basically two types of errors.
> Slips and mistakes.  Slips are errors where you, "intend to do one
> action, but do another" and mistakes, "result from the choice of
> inappropriate goals".  Norman notes that there are many types of slips:
> capture errors, description errors, data-driven errors, associative
> activation errors, loss-of-activation errors, and mode errors.
> 
> In ACT-R there seem to be two primary ways to produce errors: errors of
> commission and errors of omission.  It would seem that both of these map
> nicely onto what Norman has called "slips".  An error of commission maps
> nicely onto a type of slip called associative activation errors and
> errors of omission map somewhat nicely onto loss-of-activation errors.
> 
> I am wondering how what Norman calls "mistakes" map to the types of
> errors that can be simulated in ACT-R?  It would seem like "mistakes"
> would result from having inappropriate chunks in declarative memory, but
> I would like to hear some other thoughts on this.

If you assume that it's always possible to retrieve an incorrect
chunk, then another contrast lies in the timing of the incorrect
retrieval.  If it occurs when cognition is looking for a new goal,
this will produce a "mistake" -- an action based on an incorrect goal.
If it occurs in service of the current goal, this might be a "slip".

Erik.

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Erik M. Altmann
Psychology 2E5
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA  22030
703-993-1326
hfac.gmu.edu/~altmann
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