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Error Cancellation During Early Task Performance
Sámuel Varga1, Joshua Kah Meng Khoo2, Denis Cousineau3
1Experimental Psychology, Department of Psychology, Trier University, Trier, Germany.
Experimental Psychology
|June 22, 2026
Summary
Swift error cancellation is a general human ability, even for novel tasks. This automatic performance monitoring mechanism can terminate errors within milliseconds of initiation, demonstrating broad applicability beyond simple action slips.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Human Performance Monitoring
Background:
- Performance monitoring models suggest early post-error periods focus on detection, not mitigation.
- Recent studies indicate erroneous actions can be terminated within ~100 ms (error cancellation).
- Prior error cancellation evidence was limited to highly over-learned tasks and rapid action slips.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the generalizability of error cancellation to different error types.
- To examine if error cancellation applies to medium-speed errors in novel instruction implementation.
- To determine if error cancellation is an automatic component of human performance monitoring.
Main Methods:
- Reanalysis of three publicly available datasets.
- Studying medium-speed errors arising from incorrect rule application during novel instruction learning.
- Examining error termination within the early post-response period.
Main Results:
- Error cancellation was observed in medium-speed errors involving rule misapplication.
- The findings extend beyond rapid action slips in over-learned tasks.
- Error cancellation demonstrates generality across different error types and task complexities.
Conclusions:
- Swift error cancellation is a general and automatic aspect of human performance monitoring.
- This mechanism operates broadly, not just in highly practiced tasks.
- Error cancellation is a fundamental component of how humans monitor and correct their actions.
