Cue effectiveness in mitigating postcompletion errors in a routine procedural task

Postcompletion errors, which are omissions of actions required after the completion of a task's main goal, occur in a variety of everyday procedural tasks. Previous research has demonstrated the difficulty of reducing their frequency by means other than redesigning the task structure [Byrne, M.D., Davis, E.M., 2006. Task structure and postcompletion error in the execution of a routine procedure. Human Factors 48, 627–638]. Nevertheless, finding a successful strategy for mitigation of this type of error may uncover important mechanisms underlying interactive behavior. Two experiments were carried out to test visual cues for their ability to reduce the frequency of postcompletion errors in a computer-based routine procedural task. A cue that was visually salient, just-in-time, and meaningful entirely eliminated the error, whereas cues that were not as specific were ineffective. These results are beyond the predictive capability of extant error identification methods and common design guidelines but are consistent with the work of Altmann and Trafton [2002. Memory for goals: an activation-based model. Cognitive Science 26, 39–83] and Hollnagel [1993. Human Reliability Analysis, Context and Control. Academic Press, London]. Finally, a computational model developed in ACT-R is presented as a first step towards validation of the major findings from the two experiments.