The ability to identify errors by sight and sound--commonly referred to as "error detection"--is a musical ability needed in a variety of music professions. Instructors of undergraduate aural-skills courses often agree that strong error-detection skills are an essential outcome of these courses; however, error-detection activities are given little attention in the most widely used aural-skills textbooks and web-enabled resources, and so they are likely to be omitted from assessment in aural-skills courses. This disparity between the belief that error detection is an important musical ability and the lack of instructional focus on this ability in aural-skills courses raises the following pedagogical question: Why do instructors of aural skills consider error detection to be an essential skill but seem to not provide direct training of this skill in their courses? This dissertation evaluates the learning objectives of the undergraduate aural-skills curriculum and considers the role that error detection plays in serving those objectives. To accomplish this goal, I frame my research around the following questions: What skills do instructors want undergraduate students to learn in aural-skills courses, and how do they teach those skills? The focus of many curricula seems to be on final "products" such as a completely accurate aural dictation, but music also involves many examples of real-time "processes": listening, composing, performing, improvising, and so forth. Although the act of taking down a dictation includes many processes, and there are products of error detection, I argue that the focus of dictation is more about the total product of these musical processes whereas the focus of error detection is more about refining essential musical processes and therefore deserves more attention in aural-skills assessment. To demonstrate the myriad ways that error detection can be incorporated at all levels in the undergraduate aural-skills curriculum, I present several examples of lower-order thinking skills (LOTS)-based and higher-order thinking skills (HOTS)-based activities. As well, I offer a proposed outline of an undergraduate aural-skills curriculum that incorporates these activities, and I conclude with opportunities for future research. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]