Teaching common errors in applying a procedure

Abstract

This study investigated whether or not the teaching of matched examples and nonexamples in the form of common errors would improve student performance in applying a procedure to previously unencountered instances, and whether the common errors would be most beneficial in generality form, in example form, or in both forms. Participants were 141 first-year music students, who were randomly assigned to four groups and given the task to learn a procedure that was presented in a self-contained booklet. A pretest-posttest experimental design was used, with a prerequisite test given as a screening device. The two independent variables were the absence and presence of the common errors in the generality form and in the example form (2 x 2 factorial design). Results indicated that the teaching of common errors in the generality form significantly improved learning a procedure at the application level of behavior.