Disentangling the impacts of outcome valence and outcome frequency on the post-error slowing

Abstract

Post-error slowing (PES) reflects efficient outcome monitoring, manifested as slower reaction time after errors. Cognitive control account assumes that PES depends on error information, whereas orienting account posits that it depends on error frequency. This raises the question how the outcome valence and outcome frequency separably influence the generation of PES. To address this issue, we varied the probability of observation errors (50/50 and 20/80, correct/error) the “partner” committed by employing an observation-execution task and investigated the corresponding behavioral and neural effects. On each trial, participants first viewed the outcome of a flanker-run that was supposedly performed by a ‘partner’, and then performed a flanker-run themselves afterwards. We observed PES in the two error rate conditions. However, electroencephalographic data suggested error-related potentials (oERN and oPe) and rhythmic oscillation associated with attentional process (alpha band) were respectively sensitive to outcome valence and outcome frequency. Importantly, oERN amplitude was positively correlated with PES. Taken together, these findings support the assumption of the cognitive control account, suggesting that outcome valence and outcome frequency are both involved in PES. Moreover, the generation of PES is indexed by oERN, whereas the modulation of PES size could be reflected on the alpha band.

Error-related negativity and error awareness in a Go/No-go task

“…Then, the resulting data were Time-frequency analysis. The preprocessing of time-frequency analysis was conducted by Brain Vision Analyzer 2.0 and EEGLAB (an open source toolbox running in the MATLAB environment for EEG signal processing) 45,46 . Considering the relatively low time resolution for the time-frequency analysis, we chose a relatively long baseline to get a steady estimation for the low frequencies.…”

Frontal and occipital-parietal alpha oscillations distinguish between stimulus conflict and response conflict

“…For the neural oscillations, alpha activity (7–13 Hz) is well known as that it is associated with attentional processing and cognitive control (Klimesch, 1999 ; Carp and Compton, 2009 ; Rohenkohl and Nobre, 2011 ; Tang et al, 2013 ; Wang et al, 2015 ; Wu et al, 2015 ). Specifically, alpha activity has been suggested to modulate behavioral conflicts in the congruency tasks (Compton et al, 2011 ; Bonnefond and Jensen, 2012 ; Tang et al, 2013 ; Zhao et al, 2014 ).…”

Spontaneous neuronal activity in insula predicts post-error adjustments

“…并 且, Tops和Boksem认为错误发生后, 脑岛的活动增强将 会干扰错误后试次的反应速度 [20,43] . [1,5,9] 认为, 错误的发生标示着自上而 After committing an error, humans often adopt strategies to change error behaviors, this phenomenon is termed post-error adjustment. The post-error adjustment ability is fundamental to flexible behavior and survival in a complex, varying environment.…”