THE EFFECTS OF ERROR NOTIFICATION TIMING ON ERROR CORRETION IN ROUTINE DATA ENTRY

Abstract

Experienced data entry operators participated in an experiment to evaluate the effects of the error notification timing on error correction performance irt the data entry task. Three timing strategies were studied: immediate error notification, notification at the end of a field, and notification at the end of a physical line. Based on a model of data entry and a model of the correction process hypotheses were developed to predict operator performance. It was conjectured that operators treat individual fields as separate units tasks and that interrupting within a task would be more disruptive than interrupting between tasks. The results of the study indicated that the error rates during correction were smaller for the end of line treatment although the time to complete the correction was longer for this treatment than the other two. Performance was essentially the same for those operators interrupted who were interrupted immediately and those who were interrupted at the end of a field.