Top-down Monitoring Research Articles

A comparison between different models of delivering maternal cash transfers in Myanmar.

As part of a randomized controlled trial conducted in Myanmar between 2016 and 2019, we explore the performance of a maternal cash transfer program across villages assigned to different models of delivery (by government health workers vs loan agents of a non-governmental organization) and identify key factors of success. Measures include enrolment inclusion and exclusion errors, failures in payment delivery to enrolled beneficiaries (whether beneficiaries received any transfer, fraction of benefits received and whether there were delays and underpayment of benefit amounts) and whether beneficiaries remained in the program beyond eligibility. We find that women in villages where government health workers delivered cash transfers received on average two additional monthly transfers, were 19.7% more likely to receive payments on time and in-full and were 14.6% less likely to stay in the program beyond eligibility. With respect to the primary health objective of the program-child nutrition-we find that children whose mother received cash by government health workers were less likely to be chronically malnourished compared to those whose mother received cash by loan agents. Overall, the delivery of cash transfers to mothers of young children by government health workers outperforms the delivery by loan agents in rural Myanmar. Qualitative evidence suggests two key factors of success: (1) trusted presence and past interactions with targeted beneficiaries and complementarities between government health workers' expertise and the program; and (2) performance incentives based on specific health objectives along with top-down monitoring. We cannot exclude that other incentives or intrinsic motivation also played a role.

Citizens can help to map putative transmission sites for snail-borne diseases.

Schistosomiasis and fasciolosis are snail-borne diseases of great medical and veterinary health importance. The World Health Organization recommends complementing drug treatment with snail control and community involvement for disease elimination, but there is a general lack of snail experts and hence snail distribution data. Therefore, we adopted a citizen science approach and involved citizens in the monitoring of medically and veterinary important snail taxa. Snail data was collected weekly by 25 trained citizen scientists (CSs) at 76 sites around southern Lake Albert (Uganda) for 20 months. At each site, snails were searched for 30 minutes, sorted, target snail hosts identified to genus level, counted and data submitted through a smartphone application. The quality of this data was assessed by comparing it to monthly data collected by an 'expert' malacologist using the same sampling protocol. Generalised binomial logistic and linear mixed-effects models were used to analyse the variables for agreement between the CSs and expert. The binary agreement in presence/absence of Biomphalaria, Bulinus and Radix snails reported by the expert and CSs ranged between 70% and 86% (900 reports) with an average of 17% false negatives (sites wrongly defined as snail-free). The agreement for Biomphalaria and Radix increased with snail abundance, and false negatives decreased when the number of snails collected by citizens was aggregated per month. Site type significantly predicted binary agreement, which was lowest at lake sites (55%) and highest at spring sites (99%) with variations across genera. Similar temporal trends in snail abundance were recorded despite the expert reporting higher abundance. However, the relative abundance was consistent across site types. The match between the sites with highest Biomphalaria spp. abundance identified by CSs and expert was consistently high (~84.1%) and increased over time. Our results demonstrate the potential of citizen science to map putative schistosomiasis transmission sites. We therefore argue that this inclusive, powerful and cost-effective approach can be more sustainable than top-down monitoring and intervention campaigns.

Abnormal effective connectivity of reward network in first-episode schizophrenia with auditory verbal hallucinations

ObjectiveAuditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) in schizophrenia is proved to be associated with dysfunction of mesolimbic-cortical circuits, especially during abnormal salient and internal verbal resource monitoring processing procedures. However, the information flow among areas involved in coordinated interaction implicated the pathophysiology of AVHs remains unclear. MethodsWe used spectral dynamic causal modeling (DCM) to quantify connections among eight critical hubs of reward network in 86 first-episode drug-naïve schizophrenia patients with AVHs (AVH), 93 patients without AVHs (NAVH), and 88 matched normal controls (NC) using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Group-level connection coefficients, between-group differences and correlation analysis between image measures and symptoms were performed. ResultDCM revealed weaker effective connectivity (EC) from right ventral striatum (RVS) to ventral tegmental area (VTA) in AVH compared to NAVH. AVH showed stronger EC from left anterior insula (AI) to RVS, stronger EC from RVS to anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and stronger EC from VTA to posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) compared to NC. The correlation analysis results were mostly visible in the negative correlation between EC from right AI to ACC and positive sub-score, P1 sub-score, and P3 sub-score of PNASS in group-level. ConclusionThese findings suggest that neural causal interactions between the reward network associated with AVHs are disrupted, expanding the evidence for potential neurobiological mechanisms of AVHs. Particularly, dopamine-dependent salience attribution and top-down monitoring impairments and compensatory effects of enhanced excitatory afferents to ACC, which may provide evidence for a therapeutic target based on direct in vivo of AVHs in schizophrenia.

Development of point sampling technology for identifying high-emitting vehicles in narrow and deep street canyons

Side road measurements of fine particle (FP) concentrations were performed in two narrow and deep street canyons in the historic center of Naples using point sampling technology (PS). The FP concentration in the range of 20–103 nm was measured using a condensation particle number counter (CPC) with a 1 Hz frequency. Video recording was used to detect passing vehicles classified into three categories: motorcycles, cars, and light-duty vehicles. The two monitored streets were adjacent, with similar geometrics and orientation but different high- and low-traffic levels. FP concentration time series data were processed to identify concentration peaks generated by the exhausts of passing vehicles. A sensitivity analysis study was carried out to determine how data processing parameters could affect high-emitting vehicle (high emitter) identification. Once the optimum parameters were defined, the contribution of high emitters exhaust emissions to local air quality was assessed. The results showed that PS technology offered viable opportunities for application in narrow street canyons where deploying more common crossroad and top-down monitoring can be troublesome. However, some issues remain to be solved to accurately identify high emitterss in high-traffic cases. PS technology can be useful for developing effective air quality management policies in historical centres.

National CO2budgets (2015–2020) inferred from atmospheric CO2observations in support of the global stocktake

Abstract. Accurate accounting of emissions and removals of CO2 is critical for the planning and verification of emission reduction targets in support of the Paris Agreement. Here, we present a pilot dataset of country-specific net carbon exchange (NCE; fossil plus terrestrial ecosystem fluxes) and terrestrial carbon stock changes aimed at informing countries' carbon budgets. These estimates are based on “top-down” NCE outputs from the v10 Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2) modeling intercomparison project (MIP), wherein an ensemble of inverse modeling groups conducted standardized experiments assimilating OCO-2 column-averaged dry-air mole fraction (XCO2) retrievals (ACOS v10), in situ CO2 measurements or combinations of these data. The v10 OCO-2 MIP NCE estimates are combined with “bottom-up” estimates of fossil fuel emissions and lateral carbon fluxes to estimate changes in terrestrial carbon stocks, which are impacted by anthropogenic and natural drivers. These flux and stock change estimates are reported annually (2015–2020) as both a global 1∘ × 1∘ gridded dataset and a country-level dataset and are available for download from the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites' (CEOS) website: https://doi.org/10.48588/npf6-sw92 (Byrne et al., 2022). Across the v10 OCO-2 MIP experiments, we obtain increases in the ensemble median terrestrial carbon stocks of 3.29–4.58 Pg CO2 yr−1 (0.90–1.25 Pg C yr−1). This is a result of broad increases in terrestrial carbon stocks across the northern extratropics, while the tropics generally have stock losses but with considerable regional variability and differences between v10 OCO-2 MIP experiments. We discuss the state of the science for tracking emissions and removals using top-down methods, including current limitations and future developments towards top-down monitoring and verification systems.

Can beneficiary information improve hospital accountability? Experimental evidence from a public health insurance scheme in India

We study the role of hospital compliance in the effectiveness of government health insurance in India. Using patient surveys, we document that participating hospitals charge unauthorized fees to poor patients eligible to receive free care. Average out-of-pocket payments (OOPP) for chronic kidney care patients are $43 per month, or 25% annual GDP per capita, and are high at both public and private hospitals. Awareness of program benefits is low despite patients having used insurance for several months. We conduct a randomized experiment to test whether phone-based information about program benefits can enable insurance beneficiaries to hold hospitals accountable and lower OOPP. The intervention effectively increases program awareness by 0.17 standard deviations but has no effect on OOPP overall. However, effects differ dramatically by hospital sector: patients at private hospital see no change in OOPP despite increased bargaining and search; monthly OOPP among patients visiting public hospitals, who are poorer and lower caste, drop by $12 (35%), because they are able to negotiate to get more of their benefits at the hospital instead of paying for them off-site. The findings suggest that patient-driven accountability can meaningfully improve public service delivery, even in the context of specialized tertiary care, but may not substitute for top-down monitoring of private agents.

Frightened Mandarins: The Adverse Effects of Fighting Corruption on Local Bureaucracy

Canonical theories of bureaucracy demonstrate the need for enhanced monitoring in government hierarchies. I argue that intensive top-down monitoring may reduce the productivity of bureaucrats by frightening them away from the informal practices that they would otherwise rely on when completing daily tasks. Utilizing a unique dataset of sub-provincial inspections in China’s recent anti-corruption campaign, I identify this “chilling effect” by exploiting variation in the timing of inspections from 2012 to 2017. I show that these anti-corruption activities lower the area of land development projects proposed by bureaucrats. Causal mediation analyses with investigation data and original measures of corruption potential reveal that these effects are unlikely driven by reduction of actual corruption. Extension analyses suggest similar consequences on revenue collection and environmental regulation. Although scholars of state-building equate low corruption with effective bureaucracy, these findings present a paradox where intensive state-led efforts to lower corruption may further undermine bureaucrats’ productivity.

A fronto-insular-parietal network for the sense of body ownership.

Neuropsychological disturbances in the sense of limb ownership provide unique opportunities to study the neurocognitive basis of body ownership. Previous small sample studies that showed discrete cortical lesions cannot explain why multisensory, affective, and cognitive manipulations alter disownership symptoms. We tested the novel hypothesis that disturbances in the sense of limb ownership would be associated not only with discrete cortical lesions but also with disconnections of white-matter tracts supporting specific functional networks. We drew on an advanced lesion-analysis and Bayesian statistics approach in 49 right-hemisphere patients (23 with and 26 without limb disownership). Our results reveal that disturbances in the sense of ownership are associated with lesions in the supramarginal gyrus and disconnections of a fronto-insular-parietal network, involving the frontal-insular and frontal inferior longitudinal tracts, confirming previous disconnection hypotheses. Together with previous behavioral and neuroanatomical results, these findings lead us to propose that the sense of body ownership involves the convergence of bottom-up, multisensory integration, and top-down monitoring of sensory salience based on contextual demands.

基于多类型自然保护地整合优化的国家公园综合监测体系构建

PDF HTML阅读 XML下载 导出引用 引用提醒 基于多类型自然保护地整合优化的国家公园综合监测体系构建 DOI: 10.5846/stxb202108192315 作者: 作者单位: 作者简介: 通讯作者: 中图分类号: 基金项目: 国家重点研发计划（2017YFC0506404）；国家自然科学基金项目（41801204） Establishing a comprehensive monitoring system in national parks based on the integration and optimization of multiple types of protected areas Author: Affiliation: Fund Project: 摘要 | 图/表 | 访问统计 | 参考文献 | 相似文献 | 引证文献 | 资源附件 | 文章评论 摘要:随着我国自然保护事业进入新时代，以国家公园为主体的自然保护地体系建设思路得以明确，以国家公园为代表的自然保护地监测工作也被赋予了更高的要求。监测在促进国家公园科学规划与管理中发挥着重要作用，国家公园管理目标的实现离不开可靠的监测数据和信息的支撑。我国的国家公园试点由各类型自然保护地整合设立，因此面临不同监测类型之间的整合，存在缺乏统一的监测指标体系、有效的监测数据管理、健全的监测实施机制等问题。在对各类型自然保护地整合优化的基本思路下，基于国外国家公园监测实践与经验，综合考虑我国自然保护地的监测现状和需求，从顶层设计出发，构建了以自然资源清查为基础、以生态监测为核心、以自然与人为干扰监测为辅助、以管理有效性监测为补充并服务管理有效性评价的国家公园综合监测体系。在此基础上，进一步提出由三级监测网络、监测数据管理、管理有效性评价三部分组成的国家公园监测实施机制。在国家公园监测体系构建方面进行了探索与尝试，以期为我国国家公园监测体系以及监测制度的建立提供有益参考。 Abstract:As the establishment of protected areas in China entered a new development stage, national parks have been recognized as the main body of a new system of protected areas. Realization of management objectives requires a large number of monitoring data and information, so the monitoring of national parks has been given great significance. However, the pilot national parks were established through integration of different types of protected areas, so they were facing the challenge of the integration of different types of monitoring. Specific problems include inconsistent monitoring indicator systems, ineffective monitoring data management, flawed monitoring implementation mechanism, and so on. Firstly, this paper analyzed the monitoring status and needs of protected areas in China and found that such problems existed in the monitoring of protected areas as different monitoring priorities, redundant monitoring data and diverse monitoring departments. Then, this paper sorted out the monitoring practice and experience of foreign national parks and found that most monitoring systems of national parks in other countries took the long-term ecological monitoring as the core, established a top-down monitoring implementation mechanism, designed a monitoring indicator system with both consistency and difference, and emphasized effective data management and utilization. Under the basic idea of integrating and optimizing various types of protected areas, learning from the monitoring practice and experience of foreign national parks, and considering the monitoring status and needs of protected areas in China, this paper constructed a comprehensive monitoring system for national parks in China from the top-level design. The system is based on natural resource inventory, centered on ecological monitoring, assisted by natural and human interference monitoring, and supplemented by management effectiveness monitoring that serves the evaluation of management effectiveness. The natural resource inventory is used to determine the baseline of conservation and management, the ecological monitoring is applied to learn the rules of ecosystem changes, the natural and human interference monitoring helps clarify the correlation mechanism, and the management effectiveness monitoring serves the evaluation of management effectiveness. On this basis, the paper further proposed an implementation mechanism for the national park monitoring, which is composed of three-level monitoring network, monitoring data management, and management effectiveness evaluation. In the "nation-province-national park" implementation mechanism, on the one hand, a unified monitoring database system and management platform should be established to realize the storage, management and analysis of monitoring data; on the other hand, the management effectiveness evaluation system should also be set up, to promote the monitoring data to serve the conservation planning and management of national parks. The paper made an important attempt in the construction of the national park monitoring system, and is expected to provide a useful reference for the establishment of the national park monitoring system and implementation mechanism in China. 参考文献 相似文献 引证文献

Appreciating complexities, changing contexts and accountability challenges in sexual and reproductive health rights.

Social accountability is fast being recognised as an important strategy for realisation of sexual and reproductive health rights. However, the predominant approach tends to focus on use of top-down monitoring and accountability tools that do not capture the complexity of politics surrounding this deeply contested terrain. This paper draws on discussions that took place at the COPASAH Global Symposium in October 2019 where grassroots practitioners shared their experiences of seeking accountability and reflected on the myriad challenges in this process. The paper calls for greater nuance and awareness of context in the design and implementation of social accountability interventions, which engage with power and politics between the forces that determine people's access to SRH rights.

A Comparison of Auditory and Visual Representations of System Confidence to Support Trust Specificity, Attention Management, and Joint Performance in Human-Machine Teams

Breakdowns in human-robot teaming can result from trust miscalibration, i.e., a poor mapping of trust to a system’s capabilities, resulting in misuse or disuse of the technology. Trust miscalibration also negatively affects operators’ top-down attention allocation and monitoring of the system. This experiment assessed the efficacy of visual and auditory representations of a system’s confidence in its own abilities for supporting trust specificity, attention management and joint performance in the context of a UAV-supported target detection task. In contrast to earlier studies, neither visual nor auditory confidence information improved detection accuracy. Visual representations of confidence led to slower response times than auditory representations, likely due to resource competition with the visual target detection task. Finally, slower response times were observed when a UAV incorrectly detected a target. Results from this study can inform the design of visual and auditory representations of system confidence in human-machine teams with high attention demands.

Internal versus top-down monitoring in community resource management: Experimental evidence from Ethiopia

The evidence on the effectiveness of participatory development approaches in low-income countries is ambiguous. We randomly vary governance modalities to study elite capture in Ethiopian forest user groups and explore implications for livelihoods of group members. Top-down monitoring and punishment increases consumption and income, and decreases inequality. In contrast, internal monitoring has no effect on livelihoods. Additional heterogeneity analysis, based on observational data, reveals that while top-down monitoring works in groups where forest benefits are unimportant, internal monitoring improves economic outcomes in those groups where forest benefits are an important component of rural livelihoods. This suggests that participatory approaches work if targeted participants have strong incentives to voluntarily contribute effort.

School autonomy and the surveillance of teachers

ABSTRACT A significant paradox of school autonomy is that it tends to constrain the autonomy of teachers, instead subjecting them to the increased controlling of their work, heightened monitoring, and greater accountability. This paper draws on interview data to show how teachers in accountability-driven and business-like schools face three different but overlapping types of surveillance: vertical surveillance involving both top-down monitoring from management in the form of lesson observations and bottom-up monitoring via student voice initiatives; horizontal surveillance by way of peer observations and parents commenting on teacher effectiveness; and intrapersonal surveillance through teachers engaging in the act of self-surveillance and management analyzing their paperwork and student performance data. In mapping out this surveillance, this paper demonstrates that teachers are aware of the stakeholders watching them, the tools and techniques used, and that this surveillance takes place at all times. Significantly, some teachers are willing participants in their own surveillance. With the element of opacity removed from the surveillance process, this paper ultimately shows that the oft-cited panopticon is no longer an appropriate metaphor for scholars to use in the literature to convey the intense monitoring teachers face as we have now entered the post-panoptic era.

Monitoring Corruption: Can Top-down Monitoring Crowd-Out Grassroots Participation?

Empirical evidence on the effectiveness of grassroots monitoring is mixed. This paper proposes a previously unexplored mechanism that may explain this result. We argue that the presence of credible and effective top-down monitoring alternatives can undermine citizen participation in grassroots monitoring efforts. Building on Olken’s (2009) road-building field experiment in Indonesia; we find a large and robust effect of the participation interventions on missing expenditures in villages without an audit in place. However, this effect vanishes as soon as an audit is simultaneously implemented in the village. We find evidence of crowding-out effects: in government audit villages, individuals are less likely to attend, talk, and actively participate in accountability meetings. They are also significantly less likely to voice general problems, corruption-related problems, and to take serious actions to address these problems. Despite policies promoting joint implementation of top-down and bottom-up interventions, this paper shows that top-down monitoring can undermine rather than complement grassroots efforts.

Developmental trajectories of metacognitive processing and executive function from childhood to older age.

The modern understanding of the term metacognition encompasses two levels of processing: a lower level awareness or knowledge of one’s own thoughts and a higher level regulation or control of our thinking. Metacognition, therefore, bears conceptual similarity with executive function: both are concerned with top-down monitoring and control of cognition in the service of ongoing goal-directed behaviour. Previous studies have shown a possible executive function advantage in multilingual speakers but also a possible disadvantage in metacognitive processing. To progress theory on metacognitive processing and the relationship with executive function and linguistic experience across the lifespan, we conducted a study testing 330 healthy individuals in four age groups from 7 to 80 years old. All participants performed a metacognition task and two measures of executive function, which included the Simon task and the Tower of London task. Half the participants were multilingual speakers since birth. We built developmental trajectories of metacognitive and executive function across the lifespan. The best metacognitive efficiency was observed in mid-adulthood, whereas the best executive function processing reached its peak in young adulthood. A steep cognitive decline was observed in older age, while metacognitive efficiency was preserved. Exploratory factor analysis indicated that metacognition and executive function are served by different factors across all ages. Contrary to previous findings in the bilingual literature, a multilinguistic experience conferred neither any significant advantage nor disadvantage in both executive function and metacognitive processing across the lifespan.

Data governance and citizen participation in the digital welfare state

AbstractU.S., UK, and European municipalities are increasingly experimenting with data as an instrument for social policy. This movement pertains often to the design of municipal data warehouses, dashboards, and predictive analytics, the latter mostly to identify risk of fraud. This transition to data-driven social policy, captured by the term “digital welfare state,” almost completely takes place out of political and social view, and escapes democratic decision making. In this article, I zoom in on The Netherlands and show in detail how sound data governance is lacking at three levels: data experiments and practices take place in a so-called “institutional void” without any clear democratic mandate; moreover, they are often based on disputable quality of data and analytic models; and they tend to transgress the recent EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) about privacy and data protection. I also assess that key stakeholders in this data transition, that is the citizens whose data are used, are not actively informed let alone invited to participate. As a result, a practice of top-down monitoring, containment and control is evolving despite the desire of civil servants in this domain to do “good” with data. I explore several data and policy alternatives in the conclusion to contribute to a higher quality and more democratic usage of data in the digital welfare state.

Opnieuw fatale remedies

Dutch municipalities are increasingly experimenting with ‘big data’ as an instrument for social policy. This movement pertains to the design of municipal data warehouses, dashboards and predictive analytics, the latter mostly to identify risk of fraud. This transition to data-driven social policy almost completely takes place out of political and social view, and escapes democratic decision making. In this article I show in detail how these three emerging practices are based on disputable quality of data and analytic models, and how they tend to transgress the recent EU GPDR about privacy and data protection. I also assess that key stakeholders in this data movement, i.e. the citizens whose data are used and the benefit officers who take this data in, are not actively informed let alone invited to participate. As a result, a practice of top-down monitoring, containment and control is evolving, despite the desire of civil servants in this domain to do ‘good’ with data. In the conclusion, I explore several data and policy alternatives, to prevent ‘big data’ become another ‘fatal remedy’ in social policy.

Frightened Mandarins: The Adverse Effects of Fighting Corruption on Local Bureaucracy

Canonical theories of bureaucracy demonstrate the need for enhanced monitoring in government hierarchies. I argue that intensive top-down monitoring may reduce the productivity of bureaucrats by frightening them away from the informal practices that they would otherwise rely on when completing daily tasks. Utilizing a unique dataset of sub-provincial inspections in China's recent anti-corruption campaign, I identify this ``chilling effect'' by exploiting variation in the timing of inspections from 2012 to 2017. I show that these anti-corruption activities lower the area of land development projects proposed by bureaucrats. Causal mediation analyses with investigation data and original measures of corruption potential reveal that these effects are unlikely driven by reduction of actual corruption. Extension analyses suggest similar consequences on revenue collection and environmental regulation. Although scholars of state-building equate low corruption with effective bureaucracy, these findings present a paradox where intensive state-led efforts to lower corruption may further undermine bureaucrats' productivity.

PB8. Methylphenidate modulates gain modulation processes during competitive auditory attention in a dose–response fashion

The ability to selectively perceive and flexibly attend to relevant sensory signals in the environment is essential for adaptive behavior in everyday life. The fronto-striatal gain control mechanisms likely serve as an important regulatory interface of selective attention and perception. These gain control mechanisms are likely to be modulated by the dopaminergic system. In the current study, we administered methylphenidate (MPH) in two different dosages (0.25 mg/kg and 0.5 mg/kg) to healthy young adults in a single-blinded placebo-controlled study to examine the role of dopamine in regulating the gain control mechanisms. This was combined with high-density EEG recordings and source localization analyses in a dichotic listening task in which perceptual saliency was manipulated besides attentional focus resulting in conditions of low and high perceptual-attentional conflict. Compared to a placebo condition, we show that only at low MPH dosages (0.25 mg) performance was differentially modulated. No effects were observed using 0.50 mg MPH. The administration of 0.25 mg MPH reduced the effects of high perceptual-attentional conflict between discordant dichotic syllables. Interestingly, this was only the case for the right ear, which usually shows an advantage in verbal processing. This was reflected by specific EEG-correlates reflecting bottom-up attentional gating and top-down conflict monitoring processes. The results suggest that MPH modulates gain control processes during competitive auditory attention in a dose-dependent fashion. Yet, this modulatory effect depends on functional cerebral asymmetries.

Automatic control: How experts act without thinking.

Experts act without thinking because their skill is hierarchical. A single conscious thought automatically produces a series of lower-level actions without top-down monitoring. This article presents a theory that explains how automatic control is possible in skilled typing, where thinking of a word automatically produces a rapid series of keystrokes. The theory assumes that keystrokes are selected by a context retrieval process that matches the current context to stored contexts and retrieves the key associated with the best match. The current context is generated by the typist's own actions. It represents the goal ("type DOG") and the motor commands for the keys struck so far. Top-down control is necessary to start typing. It sets the goal in the current context, which initiates the retrieval and updating processes, which continue without top-down control until the word is finished. The theory explains phenomena of hierarchical control in skilled typing, including differential loads on higher and lower levels of processing, the importance of words, and poor explicit knowledge of key locations and finger-to-key mappings. The theory is evaluated by fitting it to error corpora from 24 skilled typists and predicting error probabilities, magnitudes, and patterns. Some of the fits are quite good. The theory has implications beyond typing. It argues that control can be automatic and shows how it is possible. The theory extends to other sequential skills, like texting or playing music. It provides new insights into mechanisms of serial order in typing, speaking, and serial recall. (PsycINFO Database Record