Negative Knowledge

Negative Knowledge

This study examined knowledge that explicitly identifies actions to avoid in specific situations (Gartmeier et al., 2008). Negative knowledge is knowledge acquired through experience about what went wrong and what to avoid when performing a task. The authors used this concept to explain the long-term effects of learning from errors and how such learning contributes to expert performance.

This conceptual paper reviews constructivism, metacognition, expertise research, and error learning. The authors organized existing concepts, derived their theoretical functions, and outlined ongoing and planned research. They proposed that negative knowledge enhances certainty, efficiency, and reflection, presenting these claims as propositions for future empirical verification.

Conceptions of Negative Knowledge

The term ‘negative’ describes the content of the knowledge, regardless of its moral value or potential for harm. In constructivism, knowledge comprises concepts and actions that effectively achieve a goal. Knowing that a specific path fails to achieve a goal allows individuals to exclude it from future choices. Knowing what does not work has heuristic value because it narrows the available options.

Negative knowledge functions as metacognitive knowledge. Understanding a strategy’s conditions and effects, along with the limits of personal ability, allows practitioners to suppress inappropriate strategies. In practice, they refrain from starting an action or stop one already underway.

Procedural negative knowledge involves knowing what to avoid doing. Earlier accounts emphasized knowing the likelihood of failure and identifying flawed solution strategies (Minsky, 1994; Oser and Spychiger, 2005). The authors cited a hospital in Nepal that advised visiting doctors about actions that endanger newborns.

Declarative negative knowledge involves recognizing gaps or flaws in personal understanding. Following Parviainen and Eriksson (2006), the authors distinguished ignorance from awareness of that ignorance. Recognizing the limits of personal performance prompts professionals to learn new skills or request help from colleagues. When tasks change and existing knowledge becomes invalid, this awareness highlights what requires updating.

Functions of Negative Knowledge

The authors proposed three functions. First, negative knowledge increases behavioral certainty. Knowing what can go wrong and which actions to avoid helps practitioners evaluate potential outcomes and the conditions that trigger them during task performance.

Second, it enhances performance efficiency by eliminating inefficient solutions. An organizational error management culture correlated positively with goal achievement, organizational viability, and return on total assets (van Dyck et al., 2005). This culture involves communication about errors, coordinated responses, and the sharing of error knowledge. These organizational-level relationships require further investigation before they can be generalized to the effects of an individual’s negative knowledge.

Third, it deepens reflection. Remembering inappropriate past actions helps individuals discern differences among similar situations and reexamine problems from multiple perspectives. Reflection helps individuals both develop and apply negative knowledge.

Negative Knowledge and Existing Theorization—Exploring Its Compatibility

In experiential learning, individuals create and modify knowledge through incidents in real contexts. From a dynamic memory perspective, knowledge structures such as scripts change when people reflect on unexpected events. They later recall these incidents to judge similar cases. Negative knowledge, which involves remembering incorrect actions in past experiences that remain relevant, aligns with this perspective.

Flight simulators offer realistic crisis experiences without fatal consequences. Trainees learn the actions and conditions to avoid. The authors discussed the emotions accompanying experiences of error alongside the memories that prevent individuals from repeating the same mistake.

The authors defined errors as actions that jeopardize desired goals. Judging what constitutes an error relies on established norms and evaluations by experienced community members. Different workplaces or individuals may interpret the same incident differently.

Errors present opportunities to refine mental models, replace flawed components, and identify vulnerable areas or incorrect relationships. Drawing on the framework of Bauer and Mulder (2007), the authors discussed regret and correction. They described how individuals analyze causes, develop preventive strategies, and implement new strategies during work tasks.

Added-value of a Knowledge Perspective for Research on Professional Learning and Expertise

The Error Orientation Questionnaire (EOQ) measures the ability to cope with errors, learning from errors, and error-related strain. Respondents recall different types of incidents, a variation that matters when interpreting results. Easily corrected errors, errors with unclear causes, and careless mistakes made despite prior knowledge constitute distinct experiences. Investigating the specific knowledge formed through particular incidents addresses these differences.

The authors referred to knowledge encapsulation among medical experts. Reflection on experience organizes the knowledge used to distinguish typical from exceptional cases. Errors do not consistently decrease as expertise increases. In a study of computer tasks by Brodbeck et al. (1992), total error rates did not differ significantly between novices and experts. Novices made more errors due to a lack of knowledge. Experts made more routine errors by applying familiar procedures to inappropriate situations.

Whether the need for explicit recall decreases when experts integrate negative knowledge into routine procedures remains a question for research. Workplace members negotiate the criteria for appropriate and inappropriate performance. The authors proposed a research strategy that begins by establishing evidence at the individual cognitive level and then expands to shared knowledge and organizational error culture.

Negative Knowledge and Professional Learning: Outlining a Research Agenda

The first method is the prompting task technique (PTT). The researcher presents a word or short phrase and asks participants to verbalize the knowledge that comes to mind. An ongoing study in geriatric nursing presented 20 diagnoses, including social isolation, verbal communication disorders, and heart failure. For each diagnosis, the researchers asked participants what to pay attention to and what to avoid, instructing them to think aloud. Preliminary interviews revealed that participants struggled to identify actions to avoid without first considering general precautions. The researchers designed the task so that participants would consider general precautions first.

Participants sometimes struggle to recall experiences in response to abstract cues. Researchers have limited opportunities to prompt further explanation during data collection. As an alternative, the authors recommended cues that clearly convey the characteristics of an incident.

The second method is the critical incident technique (CIT). This approach explores the incident that generated the knowledge and the conditions present at the time. The authors proposed a two-step design: first capturing critical incidents in the workplace, then conducting semi-structured interviews based on those incidents. The first step uses methods such as photo elicitation to collect data soon after the incident occurs. The subsequent interview explores the knowledge guiding the behavior and the experience from which that knowledge arose. It also examines its general applicability and how practitioners share it with colleagues.

The authors suggested longitudinal and quasi-longitudinal designs for developmental research. An ongoing study of bank employees compares three groups using PTT: novices with less than two years of experience, intermediate professionals with up to ten years, and experts with over ten years. This approach assumes that reaching the expert level requires ten years of preparation. The design examines the amount, form, and functions of negative knowledge across different career stages.

Repeated measurement of the same participants is useful when they enter new jobs or work in significantly altered environments. The authors identified shared group knowledge, error communication practices, and opportunities for joint reflection as topics for future investigation.

Conclusion

The authors concluded that negative knowledge provides a conceptual tool for explaining behavioral certainty, efficiency, and reflection. Researchers can explore the long-term effects of experiences of error in terms of specific knowledge and integrate these findings with existing theories of professional learning.

In education, the authors recommended providing opportunities to experience and reflect on realistic, complex, and challenging errors. Alongside error management training, learners can use journals to record what they learned from their mistakes. Instructors can gather the ‘actions to avoid’ identified by trainees to develop shared guidance. The authors also suggested using negative knowledge to measure the effectiveness of this training.

Reading notes

The PTT in the ongoing geriatric nursing study presents 20 diagnoses and elicits general precautions before asking about actions to avoid. This choice reflects participants’ difficulty in immediately identifying actions to avoid during preliminary informal interviews. PTT responses are therefore best interpreted as knowledge that participants recall and explain in relation to the diagnoses and sequence of questions presented; understanding how that knowledge is applied in practice requires further examination of the conditions surrounding events and the actions taken. The paper is conceptual, and the CIT remains a proposed design.

References

• Gartmeier, M., Bauer, J., Gruber, H., & Heid, H. (2008). Negative knowledge: Understanding professional learning and expertise. Vocations and Learning, 1(2), 87–103. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12186-008-9006-1