Distinguishing of Error Awareness from Error Correction

The current study was designed to test whether error awareness can be dissociated from error correction in typing behavior. According to the “Hierarchical Control Theory”, skilled typing is controlled by two hierarchically organized loops (Logan & Crump, 2011): The outer-loop (higher level), which generates words and receives feedback from the screen, commands the inner-loop (lower level), which produces finger movements i.e., executing keystrokes. The main aims of the current study were to demonstrate how error correction can be implemented in these two hierarchically organized loops and, in particular to investigate the error correction at the lower level. Data from twenty Turkish speaking participants were analysed in the current study. Typing performance of participants were measured under two visual feedback conditions (responses either were or were not appeared on the screen). The findings showed that participants can detect and correct their typing errors when their responses did not appear on the screen. In addition, there was no significant difference between the rates of error detection and error correction under no visual feedback condition. Theoretical and applied implications of these findings were discussed.