Experimental Slips and Human Error

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xix

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2. Introduction

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. The Many Uses of Error

      • Bernard J. Baars

      Pages 3-34

3. Theoretical Approaches

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 35-37

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   2. Errors, Ambiguity, and Awareness in Language Perception and Production

      • Donald G. Mackay

      Pages 39-69

   3. Cognitive Underspecification

      • James T. Reason

      Pages 71-91

   4. A New Ideomotor Theory of Voluntary Control

      • Bernard J. Baars

      Pages 93-120

   5. Opportunistic Planning and Freudian Slips

      • Lawrence Birnbaum, Gregg Collins

      Pages 121-125

4. Methods for Inducing Predictable Slips in Speech and Action

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 127-127

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   2. A Dozen Competing-Plans Techniques for Inducing Predictable Slips in Speech and Action

      • Bernard J. Baars

      Pages 129-150

   3. Laboratory Induction of Nonspeech Action Errors

      • Mark E. Mattson, Bernard J. Baars

      Pages 151-193

   4. The Reliability and Replicability of Naturalistic Speech Error Data

      • Joseph Paul Stemberger

      Pages 195-215

   5. General and Specific Factors in “Transformational Errors”

      • Jenn-Yeu Chen, Bernard J. Baars

      Pages 217-233

5. Findings and Theory Derived from Induced Slips

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 235-236

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   2. Errors in Inner Speech

      • Gary S. Dell, Renee J. Repka

      Pages 237-262

   3. Error-Minimizing Mechanisms

      • Mark E. Mattson, Bernard J. Baars

      Pages 263-287

   4. Some Caveats on Testing the Freudian Slip Hypothesis

      • Bernard J. Baars, Jack W. Berry, Jonathan Cohen, Gordon H. Bower

      Pages 289-313

6. Commentary

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 315-315

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   2. The Psychology of Slips

      • Abigail J. Sellen, Donald A. Norman

      Pages 317-339

7. Back Matter

   Pages 341-346

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Whereas most humans spend their time trying to get things right, psycholo­ gists are perversely dedicated to error. Errors are extensively used to in­ vestigate perception, memory, and performance; some clinicians study errors like tea leaves for clues to unconscious motives; and this volume presents the work of researchers who, in an excess of perversity, actually cause people to make predictable errors in speech and action. Some reasons for this oddity are clear. Errors seem to stand at the nexus of many deep-psychological questions. The very concept of error presupposes a goal or criterion by comparison to which an error is an error; and goals bring in the foundation issues of control, motivation, and volition (Baars, 1987, 1988; Wiener, 1961). Errors serve to measure the quality of performance in learning, in expert knowledge, and in brain damage and other dysfunctional states; and by surprising us, they often call attention to phenomena we might otherwise take for granted. Errors also seem to reveal the "natural joints" in perception, language, memory, and problem solving-revealing units that may otherwise be invisible (e. g. , MacKay, 1981; Miller, 1956; Newell & Simon, 1972; Treisman & Gelade, 1980).

• Action
• architecture
• experience
• methodology
• perception
• psychology
• reason
• will
• literary diction

• The Wright Institute, Berkeley, USA

  Bernard J. Baars

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