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Outcome expectancy and not accuracy determines posterror slowing: ERP support.
Elena Núñez Castellar1, Simone Kühn, Wim Fias
1Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. elenapatricia.nunezcastellar@ugent.be
Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience
|May 26, 2010
Summary
Post-error adjustments in behavior are linked to outcome expectations. Unexpected events, whether errors or correct responses, trigger behavioral slowing, suggesting attentional orienting to novel outcomes.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Human Behavior
Background:
- Event-related potentials (ERPs) are increasingly used to study error processing mechanisms.
- The relationship between error processing mechanisms and subsequent behavioral adjustments, like post-error slowing, is not fully understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the link between post-error slowing, outcome expectations, and error feedback.
- To determine the role of expectancy in behavioral adjustments following errors.
Main Methods:
- An adaptive four-choice reaction time task was employed to manipulate outcome expectancy.
- Behavioral reaction times and event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded and analyzed.
Main Results:
- Behavioral data revealed post-error slowing for unexpected errors and post-correct slowing for unexpected correct responses.
- The P3 component of ERPs, but not error-related negativity or feedback-related negativity, correlated with the observed behavioral reaction time patterns.
Conclusions:
- Outcome expectancy is a critical factor influencing post-error behavioral adjustments.
- Post-error slowing appears to be driven by attentional orienting towards unexpected events, as indicated by P3 modulation.
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