Neural and behavioral traces of error awareness

Hans Kirschner,Jil Humann,Jan Derrfuss,Claudia Danielmeier,Markus Ullsperger

doi:10.3758/s13415-020-00838-w

Abstract

Monitoring for errors and behavioral adjustments after errors are essential for daily life. A question that has not been addressed systematically yet, is whether consciously perceived errors lead to different behavioral adjustments compared to unperceived errors. Our goal was to develop a task that would enable us to study different commonly observed neural correlates of error processing and post-error adjustments in their relation to error awareness and accuracy confidence in a single experiment. We assessed performance in a new number judgement error awareness task in 70 participants. We used multiple, robust, single-trial EEG regressions to investigate the link between neural correlates of error processing (e.g., error-related negativity (ERN) and error positivity (Pe)) and error awareness. We found that only aware errors had a slowing effect on reaction times in consecutive trials, but this slowing was not accompanied by post-error increases in accuracy. On a neural level, error awareness and confidence had a modulating effect on both the ERN and Pe, whereby the Pe was most predictive of participants’ error awareness. Additionally, we found partial support for a mediating role of error awareness on the coupling between the ERN and behavioral adjustments in the following trial. Our results corroborate previous findings that show both an ERN/Pe and a post-error behavioral adaptation modulation by error awareness. This suggests that conscious error perception can support meta-control processes balancing the recruitment of proactive and reactive control. Furthermore, this study strengthens the role of the Pe as a robust neural index of error awareness.

Highlights

Monitoring for errors is important for successful functioning in daily life
We focused on the question whether error awareness and its neural correlates modulate the recruitment of various forms of post-error adjustments
Participants classified 92.69% (SE = 2.81) of their correct responses and 7.31% (SE = 2.80) of their erroneous responses as correct. These results indicate that the task is suited to study error awareness, because it yielded both a sufficient amount of aware and unaware errors, and that the accuracy judgments were above chance level

Summary

Introduction

Monitoring for errors is important for successful functioning in daily life. It enables the initiation of remedial actions when something goes wrong and prevents making the same errors over and over again. We focus on conscious error perception as a form of metacognition. We studied the neural and behavioral traces of error awareness in a newly developed number judgement error awareness task. We focused on the question whether error awareness and its neural correlates modulate the recruitment of various forms of post-error adjustments. We briefly surveyed the literature on neural correlates of performance monitoring, post error adjustments, and the assessment of error awareness

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