Abstract
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This paper examined the impact of training strategies on the types of errors that novice
users make when learning a commonly used spreadsheet application. Fifty participants
were assigned to a counterfactual thinking training (CFT) strategy, an error management
training strategy, or a combination of both strategies, and completed an easy task
(assessing direct application of the skills learned) followed by a hard task (assessing
adaptive transfer). Even though there were no objective differences in performance
across conditions, a positive relationship was found between errors and task performance
for the CFT and combined conditions in the hard task. These preliminary findings
indicate the usefulness of examining not only task performance but also types of errors
when assessing the effectiveness of software training strategies.