Behind the wheel: What drives the effects of error handling?

Existing research comparing error management (a strategy focusing on
increasing the positive and decreasing the negative consequences of errors)
to error prevention (a strategy focusing on working faultlessly), has identified
error management as beneficial for multiple outcomes. Yet, due to
various methodological limitations, it is unclear whether the effects previously
found are due to error prevention, error management, or both. We
examine this in an experimental study with a 2 (error prevention: yes vs. no)
× 2 (error management: yes vs. no) factorial design. Error prevention had
negative effects on cognition and adaptive transfer performance. Error
management alleviated worry and boosted one’s perceived self-efficacy.
Overall, the results show that error prevention and error management
have unique outcomes on negative affect, self-efficacy, cognition, and
performance.