How helpful are error management and counterfactual thinking instructions to inexperienced spreadsheet users' training task performance?

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.