Effect of Subjective Verbal Uncertainty on Perception of Typographical Errors in a Proofreading Task

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
In contrast to its effect on most perceptual tasks, verbal uncertainty might be expected to facilitate the detection of typographical errors in proofreading. Experimental treatments consisted of messages differing in their levels of verbal uncertainty. In two proofreading tasks, 104 subjects searched for typographical errors systematically introduced into these passages of text. Task I showed a significant positive treatment effect of verbal uncertainty on recognition of errors and a significant positive correlation, across words, between subjective uncertainty and detection of typographical errors. The results for Task II were more equivocal and suggested the need for further research.

This publication has 16 references indexed in Scilit: