Categorization of action slips

Abstract:

A slip is the error that occurs when a person does an action that is not intended. In this article I examine several collections of slips, primarily of actions, with the aim of devising a theoretical explication. A theory of action is outlined in which an action sequence is represented by a parent schema and numerous child schemas, in which several action schemas can be active at any one time, and in which each schema has a set of triggering conditions and an activation value. The path from intention to action consists of the activation of the parent schema that corresponds to the intention, the activation of child schemas for the component parts of the action sequence, and then the appropriate triggering of schemas when the conditions match those required for their operations. This action system allows slips to be organized into three major categories and a number of subcategories. The three major categories of slips are: (a) errors in the formation of the intention (which includes the subcategories of mode and description errors); (b) faulty activation of schemas (which includes the subcategories of capture errors, data-driven and associative activations, loss of intention, and misordering of action components); and (c) faulty triggering (which includes the subcategories of spoonerisms, blends, intrusions of thoughts, and premature triggering).