Abstract
Procedural fidelity is the extent to which protocols are implemented as prescribed. Prior research found that procedural fidelity errors can delay learning new skills, but not much is known about their effects on performance for skills that have previously been mastered. The present study was a systematic replication of Falakfarsa et al. (2023) to further investigate how consequence-based errors affect performance post-mastery. Twenty-four undergraduate students learned new skills via a computerized matching-to-sample task under perfect fidelity. Following skill mastery, consequence-based errors were introduced across varying level of fidelity (i.e., 33% and 67%). Four response patterns emerged: immediate decrease in performance with and without recovery, decrease after prolonged exposure, and no effect on performance. The results show that, on average, performance was according to the assigned fidelity level. However, idiosyncratic differences across participants were observed.