Abstract
This study investigated the impact of criterion-based vs. social reference frames on behavioural and neural correlates of performance monitoring while taking individual differences in control beliefs into account. We conducted two experiments administering a time estimation task in which feedback was either delivered pertaining to participants’ own performance (nonsocial/criterion-based reference) or to the performance of a reference group of previous participants (social reference). In Experiment 1, 34 male volunteers participated. To test generalizability of the observed results to both sexes/genders, we recruited 36 female volunteers for Experiment 2. P2 and P300 amplitudes were generally larger in social than in nonsocial reference trials in the male participants of Experiment 1. ΔFRN amplitudes were larger for social compared to non-social reference trials in Experiment 1. No effects of reference frame were found in the female sample of Experiment 2. Rather, P2 and ΔFRN effects showed opposing patterns for nonsocial versus social reference frames. However, stronger internal control beliefs were accompanied by larger FRN amplitudes of negative social reference trials in both samples, suggesting generalizable effects independent of sex/gender. Enhanced P2 and ΔFRN amplitudes for social versus nonsocial reference trials suggest enhanced attentional capture and higher saliency of socially framed feedback in male participants only. In both sexes/genders, however, the social reference frame possibly challenges internal control beliefs and by this enhances performance monitoring. Our results demonstrate the complex interplay of trait variables and reference frames during performance monitoring influencing our daily lives-reference frames are omnipresent in education and one’s working environment.
Highlights
Monitoring other people’s behaviour entails comparing our behaviours to those of our fellow humans, such as when weCogn Affect Behav Neurosci (2018) 18:778–795 performances could result in different grades and performance feedback
Generalized internal control beliefs were positively associated with Feedback-Related Negativity (FRN) amplitudes in negative social compared with negative nonsocial reference feedback
P2 and FRN amplitudes were sensitive to the reference frame manipulation most prominently in Experiment 1
Summary
Monitoring other people’s behaviour entails comparing our behaviours to those of our fellow humans, such as when we. If perceived causality of action is relevant in the current manipulation, one would expect enhanced P2, FRN, and P300 amplitudes for the nonsocial compared with the social reference frame condition, due to less controllability/accountability during the social reference condition (Beyer et al, 2016; Li et al, 2010). Participants with higher generalized internal locus of control scores (higher internal control beliefs) should show enhanced FRN amplitudes in the nonsocial reference condition, in which their actions were directly connected to the subsequent feedback (Aarts & Pourtois, 2012) Another hypothesis would suggest that the social reference frame will be perceived per se as more salient than the nonsocial one because of the high prevalence and specific relevance of implicit social comparison and evaluation processes (Dunbar, 2011). We conducted a follow-up experiment to test whether results from Experiment 1 were generalizable to a female sample
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