The art of thinking · 6 · Judgment, action and error
Action regulation theory
Also known as: Action theory (work psychology), Handlungsregulationstheorie
German: Handlungsregulationstheorie
In work psychology, action regulation theory describes goal-directed work as a hierarchically organized cycle of setting goals, orienting, planning, executing and processing feedback, regulated on levels from automatic sensorimotor skills to conscious intellectual control; it was developed mainly in German work psychology by Winfried Hacker and Walter Volpert.
- Cognitive psychology
- Work psychology
- Human factors
In one sentence
Action regulation theory models work as a cycle of goal, orientation, plan, execution and feedback, regulated on levels from automatic to conscious.
Example
Setting up a format change, an experienced operator plans at the intellectual level only for the unfamiliar parameter; the rest runs as flexible action patterns. Instructions that support only the planning level slow down the routine and miss the critical point.
What the research shows
The theory draws on Soviet activity theory and on Miller, Galanter and Pribram’s TOTE unit (Plans and the Structure of Behavior, 1960). Actions are regulated by goals and by an operative image of the task (operatives Abbild), the worker’s mental representation of the system and the conditions. Regulation runs on several levels — sensorimotor, flexible action patterns, intellectual — and parts of an action shift to lower levels with practice. Frese and Zapf (1994) made it a general framework of work psychology, including an error taxonomy along the action sequence and the regulation levels.
Evidence status
Action regulation theory is a framework with strong empirical use in German-speaking work design, job analysis instruments (such as VERA and RHIA) and error research; it is less known in English-speaking psychology. Like other frameworks it is assessed by its applications rather than by single tests.
How it applies
The action cycle shows where information enters work: goals and orientation (concepts, overviews), plans (procedures), execution signals (cues, displays) and feedback (results, error messages). The applied side is covered in the application glossary and by task analysis.
External references
- Hacker, W. (2003). Action regulation theory: A practical tool for the design of modern work processes? European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 12(2), 105–130. https://doi.org/10.1080/13594320344000075
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