Page 222 - Deep Learning

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Error Correction: The Specialization Theory

For a slip to be started, yet caught, means that there must exist some monitoring
mechanism of behavior – a mechanism that is separate from that responsible for
the selection and execution of the act.
Donald A. Norman 1

The crucial issue in the regulation of intentional action is the opportunity to
compare what was intended with what in fact resulted, using the difference
between the two as a basis of correction.
Jerome S. Bruner 2

The world is not a stable, repetitive clockwork that travels forever in the same
orbit, but a nonlinear, turbulent and complex system, continuously transformed
by forces both material and social. The laws of change are themselves change-
able. A person knows this complex world only through a small and necessarily
unrepresentative sample of situations. Consequently, prior knowledge will fit
some aspects of the person’s environment but not others. Even if the world were
to stay still, we do not. Every time we colonize a new task environment, we turn
into novices once again. The novice struggling to master an unfamiliar task and
the competent performer working in a task environment that is changing under
his feet differ in some respects, but both scenarios undermine the projectability
of prior experience. Attempting to perform the task at hand by methods and
strategies that worked well until yesterday, we unavoidably act inappropriately,
incorrectly or unproductively part of the time. The turbulent character of the
material and social worlds, the limitations on prior experience and the recur-
ring need to acquire new skills imply that the occurrence of unexpected and
undesired outcomes is an intrinsic aspect of action.
In everyday parlance, we label such outcomes “errors.” Although errors can
be disastrous and we do what we can to eliminate them, they are informative.

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