The Processing Of Valence And Prediction In Feedback Evaluation:An ERP Study

Environmental feedback matters much for human beings in such uncertain circumstances.How feedback evaluation promotes us to optimize performance has been investigated by cognitive neuroscientists,showing that this evaluation process involves feedback valence and feedback prediction.However,working to dissociate the FRN(feedback related negativity)effects of valence and prediction have met with some difficulties.The present study attempted to investigate the factors that may influence those electrophysiological activities.We conducted a modified time estimation task with four experiments,and used the traditional ERP analysis and principle component analysis to measure the FRN effects.The results revealed that both valence and prediction could be processed,and they may be modulated by the task-goal dependence,the complexity of feedback information and feedback time.What's more,feedback prediction has distinct impacts on positive and negative outcomes.Thus,we further speculate that the cognitive processing mechanisms of feedback valence and prediction may be different.Experiment One aimed to confirm the FRN effect of feedback valence.This experiment conducted a classical time estimation task,the result showed that the FRN magnitude of negative feedback was more salient than the one elicited by positive feedback.Experiment Two aimed to confirm the FRN effect of feedback prediction and to explore how the feedback complexity and feedback timing influence the processing of feedback evaluation.Based experiment One,this experiment inserted a self-evaluation step after the time estimation performance while before feedback presentation to quantify feedback prediction,meanwhile simplified the feedback valence and self-assessment into only two options to reduce the cognitive load.The results revealed that both feedback valence and feedback prediction could be processed well.Meanwhile,The comparison between Experiment two and previous study showed that the complexity of feedback information weak the FRN effect of feedback valence,the comparison between the FRN magnitudes of positive and negative feedback in experiment Two(delay feedback)and experiment One(immediate feedback)revealed that feedback time alsocould disturb the processing of feedback evaluation.Experiment Three aimed to explore how the task-goal information influence the processing of feedback valence and feedback prediction.Based experiment Two,this experiment set the feedback information indicate the accuracy of self-evaluation rather than time estimation behavioral,which could emphasize the importance of feedback prediction.The comparison between experiment Two(feedback valence was more related to task goal)and experiment Three(feedback prediction was more related to task goal)revealed that the FRN effects of valence and prediction are both task-goal dependent.Experiment Four aimed to explore how feedback prediction influence the processing of positive and negative feedback.Based experiment One,this experiment set three outcome types of positive feedback,neutral feedback and negative feedback,and set neutral feedback to be frequency outcome but the others to be infrequency outcomes.The comparison between the FRN magnitudes of frequency and infrequency feedback confirmed the FRN effect of feedback prediction,and the comparison between the FRN magnitudes of positive and negative feedback in experiment Four(unpredictive condition)and experiment One(predictive condition)revealed that feedback prediction had different functions in different valences,showing that unpredictive negative feedback elicited more salient FRN component than predictive one,but there were no difference between unpredictive and predictive positive feedback.This study indicated that both valence and prediction could be processed in feedback evaluation,and these processing were influenced by many factors.This study speculates that there may exist different cognitive processing processes of feedback valence and feedback prediction.feedback valence reflects the emotional motivation significance of behavioral outcomes,while feedback prediction emphasizes the cognitive control significance of the relationship between behavior and outcome.Future study should try to separate the cognitive processing mechanisms of feedback valence and feedback prediction.This study may prove supplementary to understand the potential mechanism of how feedback processing promotes behavioral learning and decision-making.