Researchers continued to explore error training as a strategy for increasing performance and maintaining performance under changing environmental demands. In contrast to traditional training design approaches that focus on teaching correct methods (and avoiding errors), error management training encourages trainees to make errors and engage in reflection to understand the causes of errors and strategies to avoid making them in the future. Heimbeck et al. (2003) implemented error training using a sample of undergraduate students. The task consisted of learning how to use spreadsheet software (i.e., Excel). Performance was assessed by raters who reviewed videotaped
sessions and rated whether discrete tasks such as entering data correctly or formatting a table were performed correctly. Trainees who were provided the opportunity to make errors (together with explicit instructions encouraging them to learn from these errors) performed significantly higher than those in error avoidant conditions. In a follow up experiment, participants learning how to use presentations soft-ware (i.e., PowerPoint) performed better in the error training with metacognition prompting (i.e., instructions encouraging trainees to think explicitly about what the problem is, what they are trying to achieve, and so forth) compared to the error avoidant condition (Keith & Frese 2005). A recent meta-analysis by Keith & Frese (2008) reported that overall, error management training was superior to either proceduralized error-avoidant training or exploratory training without error encouragement (d = 0.44). Ef-fect sizes were moderated by two important factors: Effect sizes were greater for posttransfer measures compared to within-training performance, and for adaptive transfer tasks (as opposed to tasks structurally similar to training). Thus, error training may be appropriate for de-veloping a deeper task understanding that facilitates transfer to novel tasks.