Gray, 1995

Gray, W. D. (1995). VCR-as-paradigm: A study and taxonomy of errors in an interactive task. In K. Nordby, P. Helmersen, D. J. Gilmore, & S. A. Arnesen (Eds.), Human-Computer Interaction--Interact'95, (pp. 265-270). New York: Chapman & Hall.

The error-prone task of programming a VCR is representative of a growing number of end-user programmable devices. To help understand this task a display-based model of VCR programming was developed and implemented as a computational cognitive model. The model accurately predicts the vast majority of correct and error recovery keypresses collected from 9 subjects during 56 successfully programmed shows. The model supports two taxonomies for classifying errors; one at the keypress level, the other at the goal and subgoal level. The taxonomies have descriptive utility and are being used to understand the non-random nature, discovery, recovery of errors in programmable devices.