The Cognitive Neural Mechanism Of Post-error Slowing And The Intervention

Errors are very important for our survival and development.The subsequent behavior of individuals is often affected after the error.In daily life,individuals can make mistakes unavoidably,and timely and effective post-error adjustments will help subsequent task performance.The post-error slowing(PES)is a typical post-error adjustment,and response errors often cause individuals to slow down their subsequent reactions.However,the cognitive neural mechanism of PES is still in debate,and the way to improve post-error performance has not been known.Based on the above issues,we first investigated the cognitive and neural mechanisms of PES in the study1,and then investigated whether post-error performance could be improved through working memory(WM)training and its underlying mechanisms in the study 2.The study 1 is consisted of two experiments.In the experiment 1,we adopted the short and long response-stimulus intervals(RSIs)to investigate the influence of different RSIs on PES,so as to reveal the cognitive mechanism of PES.We used the four-choice flanker task and collected the behavioral data of 43 participants when performing this task.The results showed that the significant PES was observed at both short RSIs and long RSIs.The post-error accuracy was significantly lower than post-correct accuracy at short RSIs,but there was no significant difference between the post-error accuracy and the post-correct accuracy at long RSIs.These results indicated that the PES was maladaptive at short RSIs,but adaptive at long RSIs.Together with behavioral results,the RSIs significantly affected the performance in post-error trials,which supported our previous prediction.The experiment 2 was to verify the stability of the results in the experiment 1.And EEG(electroencephalographic)technology was adopted to further explore the underlying neural mechanism of PES.As the same as the previous experiment design,the experiment 2 used the four-choice flanker task to collect the behavioral and EEG data of 27 participants.The results showed that the experiment 2 verified the behavior results of the experiment 1.That is,the PES was maladaptive at short RSIs,and with the increase of RSIs,it showed some adaptive features.The results of ERP(event-related potential)and time-frequency analysis showed that the RSIs did not affect basic error-related processing,indexed by the null effects of RSIs on ERN(error-related negativity),Pe(error positivity),and theta power.In addition,at short RSIs,compared with correctresponses,error responses elicited larger beta band power and smaller P1 amplitude but did not affect alpha band power;at long RSIs,compared with correct response,error responses led to smaller alpha and beta band power but did not affect P1 amplitude.These results indicated that the RSIs significantly influenced post-error attentional adjustment,motor inhibition,and sensory sensitivity.That is,when an error occurred at short RSIs,the motor processing was inhibited,and subsequent sensory processing was impaired,but no attentional adjustment occurred;when an error occurred at long RSIs,the attentional adjustment but not motor inhibition occurred,and sensory processing was not impaired.Based on the above results,the present study based on behavioral and neural evidence systematically demonstrated that the PES was adaptive at long RSIs,but maladaptive at short RSIs.In the study 2(experiment 3),we adopted behavioral methods to investigate the influence of WM training on post-error performance.The behavioural data of 42 participants were collected,who were randomly assigned to either the experimental or control group.The experimental group was required to carry out a 15-day dual n-back task training,while the control group was required to carry out a 15-day visual search task training.Measures of post-error performance,including post-error reaction time performance and post-error accuracy performance,were measured before and after training,which allowed us to quantify transfer from dual n-back task training to post-error performance.The results showed that WM training successfully improved WM performance.After training,compared with the control group,the experimental group showed a significant reduction in PES;however,post-error accuracy and the flanker effect were not modulated by WM training.Moreover,we observed a significant,negative correlation between the changes in PES and WM from pretest to posttest and classified two groups based on these changes in PES with 70%accuracy.Thus,in our present sample,WM training improved post-error performance,which was consistent with our previous prediction.That is,WM and error processing have the shared processes,and the splitting skill developed during WM training is transferable to error processing,thus improving post-error performance.In summary,we combined behavior with EEG technology to investigate the cognitive neural mechanism of PES and the transfer effect of WM training on post-error performance.The present study systematically examined the adaptability of PES by changing the supply of central resources,and it should be the most systematic study for error-induced processing up to now.We provided evidence to clarify that PES was adaptive at long RSIs and was maladaptive at short RSIs,and elaborated the specific behavioral and neural manifestations when PES was adaptive and maladaptive.These results provide new evidence for the cognitive neural mechanism of PES.Thestudy on the influence of WM training on post-error performance extends the applied research on PES.WM training reduced the amount of PES without decreasing the post-error accuracy.With the view of practical application,we provide an effective intervention way to improve post-error performance.