Improved memory for error feedback.

Surprising feedback in a general knowledge test leads to an improvement in memory for both the surface features and the content of the feedback (Psychon Bull Rev 16:88-92, 2009). Based on the idea that in cognitive tasks, error is surprising (the orienting account, Cognition 111:275-279, 2009), we tested whether error feedback would be better remembered than correct feedback. Colored words were presented as feedback signals in a flanker task, where the color indicated the accuracy.

Errors Disrupt Subsequent Early Attentional Processes.

It has been demonstrated that target detection is impaired following an error in an unrelated flanker task. These findings support the idea that the occurrence or processing of unexpected error-like events interfere with subsequent information processing. In the present study, we investigated the effect of errors on early visual ERP components.

Distinguishing the influence of task difficulty on error-related ERPs using surface Laplacian transformation.

Electrophysiologically, errors are characterized by a negative deflection, the error related negativity (ERN), which is followed by the error positivity (Pe). However, it has been suggested that this latter component consists of two subcomponents, with an early frontocentral Pe reflecting a continuation of the ERN, and a centro-parietal Pe reflecting error awareness. Using Laplacian transformed averages, a correct-related negativity (CRN; similar to the ERN), can be found on correct trials.

Strategy Changes After Errors Improve Performance.

The observation that performance does not improve following errors contradicts the traditional view on error monitoring (Fiehler et al., 2005; Núñez Castellar et al., 2010; Notebaert and Verguts, 2011).

Keep calm and be patient: The influence of anxiety and time on post-error adaptations.

Individual differences in anxiety and punishment sensitivity have an impact on electrophysiological markers of error processing and the orienting of attention to threatening information. However, it remains unclear how these individual differences influence behavioral adaptations to errors. Therefore, we set out to investigate the influence of anxiety and punishment sensitivity on post-error adaptations, and whether this influence depends on the time people get to adapt.

Electrophysiological evidence for the involvement of proactive and reactive control in a rewarded stop-signal task.

Reward availability is known to facilitate various cognitive operations, which is usually studied in cue-based paradigms that allow for enhanced preparation in reward-related trials. However, recent research using tasks that signal reward availability via task-relevant stimuli suggests that reward can also rapidly promote performance independent of global strategic preparation. Notably, this effect was also observed in a reward-related stop-signal task, in which behavioral measures of inhibition speed were found to be shorter in trials signaling reward.

Disentangling posterror and postconflict reduction of interference.

Conflict monitoring theory (CMT; Botvinick, Braver, Barch, Carter, & Cohen Psychological Review, 108, 624-652, 2001) states that response conflict, the simultaneous activation of two competing responses, increases task focus and reduces interference from irrelevant information. CMT also defines errors as conflict, and reduced interference effects have consistently been reported following errors (Ridderinkhof Psychological Research, 66, 312-323, 2002). However, previous computations of this posterror reduction of interference (PERI) have overlooked the congruency of the previous trial.