Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 10, 2026
05:22
Dissociation of the Confounding Influences of Expectancy and Integrative Difficulty Residing in Anomalous Sentences in Event-related Potential Studies
Published on: May 9, 2019
Percept-based and object-based error processing: an experimental dissociation of error-related negativity and error
Henning Gibbons1, Anna-Sophia Fritzsche, Sonja Bienert
1Georg Elias Müller Institute for Psychology, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany. hgibbon@gwdg.de
Summary
This study shows that stimulus presentation affects how the brain processes errors. Longer durations and blocked presentations enhance error detection, influencing both conscious and unconscious error signals.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Error processing is crucial for learning and behavior adjustment.
- Error-related negativity (ERN) and error positivity (Pe) are electrophysiological markers of error processing.
- Factors influencing ERN and Pe, such as stimulus presentation, require further investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of masked visual stimulus presentation duration and mode (randomized vs. blocked) on ERN and Pe.
- To explore the relationship between stimulus characteristics and the neural correlates of error detection.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments were conducted using masked visual stimuli (arrows) presented for varying durations (0-117 ms).
- Participants responded to stimuli using left/right hand responses.
- Stimulus durations were randomized in Experiment 1 and blocked in Experiment 2.
Main Results:
- Increased stimulus duration correlated with higher accuracy and larger Pe amplitude in both experiments.
- ERN was observed only for longer stimulus durations in the blocked presentation (Experiment 2).
- ERN was absent in the randomized presentation (Experiment 1), irrespective of stimulus duration.
Conclusions:
- The findings suggest that conscious error processing (Pe) can occur independently of unconscious error detection (ERN).
- Two distinct error detection processes are proposed: object-based (Pe) and perceptual stimulus-based (ERN).
- A new model of error processing is presented, extending reinforcement-learning theory and linking ERN to response-retrieved stimulus representation mismatches.
