Abstract
A number of recent studies have hypothesized that monitoring in speech production may occur via domain-general mechanisms responsible for the detection of response conflict. Outside of language, two ERP components have consistently been elicited in conflict-inducing tasks (e.g., the flanker task): the stimulus-locked N2 on correct trials, and the response-locked error-related negativity (ERN). The present investigation used these electrophysiological markers to test whether a common response conflict monitor is responsible for monitoring in speech and non-speech tasks. Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded while participants performed a tongue twister (TT) task and a manual version of the flanker task. In the TT task, people rapidly read sequences of four nonwords arranged in TT and non-TT patterns three times. In the flanker task, people responded with a left/right button press to a center-facing arrow, and conflict was manipulated by the congruency of the flanking arrows. Behavioral results showed typical effects of both tasks, with increased error rates and slower speech onset times for TT relative to non-TT trials and for incongruent relative to congruent flanker trials. In the flanker task, stimulus-locked EEG analyses replicated previous results, with a larger N2 for incongruent relative to congruent trials, and a response-locked ERN. In the TT task, stimulus-locked analyses revealed broad, frontally-distributed differences beginning around 50 ms and lasting until just before speech initiation, with TT trials more negative than non-TT trials; response-locked analyses revealed an ERN. Correlation across these measures showed some correlations within a task, but little evidence of systematic cross-task correlation. Although the present results do not speak against conflict signals from the production system serving as cues to self-monitoring, they are not consistent with signatures of response conflict being mediated by a single, domain-general conflict monitor.
Highlights
Producing speech is one of the most common actions in which we engage
The goal of the present study is to test the viability of monitoring for response conflict in production by assessing whether similar electrophysiological and behavioral signatures of conflict are present in a speech production task and a standard, non-linguistic measure of conflict, the flanker task
In order to examine the efficacy of self-monitoring, we evaluated the proportion of errors that were self-corrected
Summary
Producing speech is one of the most common actions in which we engage. Like any other action, fluent and correct speaking requires self-monitoring. Recent research and modeling has suggested, that conflict signals arising within the production itself might serve as a critical cue to self-monitoring (Nozari et al, 2011) Such signals have been well-documented outside of language, with one prominent framework suggesting that all action domains might be monitored via a domain-general mechanism sensitive to detecting response conflict (e.g., Botvinick et al, 2001). This latter framework, has almost exclusively been investigated using manual responding in non-linguistic tasks. The goal of the present study is to test the viability of monitoring for response conflict in production by assessing whether similar electrophysiological and behavioral signatures of conflict are present in a speech production task and a standard, non-linguistic measure of conflict, the flanker task
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