Feedback-related brain activity predicts learning from feedback in multiple-choice testing

Abstract

Different event-related potentials (ERPs) have been shown to correlate with learning from feedback in decisionmaking tasks and with learning in explicit memory tasks. In the present study, we investigated which ERPs predict learning from corrective feedback in a multiple-choice test, which combines elements from both paradigms. Participants worked through sets of multiple-choice items of a Swahili-German vocabulary task. Whereas the initial presentation of an item required the participants to guess the answer, corrective feedback could be used to learn the correct response. Initial analyses revealed that corrective feedback elicited components related to reinforcement learning (FRN), as well as to explicit memory processing (P300) and attention (early frontal positivity). However, only the P300 and early frontal positivity were positively correlated with successful learning from corrective feedback, whereas the FRN was even larger when learning failed. These results suggest that learning from corrective feedback crucially relies on explicit memory processing and attentional orienting to corrective feedback, rather than on reinforcement learning.

Valence‐dependent brain potentials of processing augmented feedback in learning a complex arm movement sequence

“…Therefore, positive feedback is more useful and informative for learning in tasks with certain informative ambiguity of negative feedback events (Arbel et al, ). The P300 seems to have its origin in the temporal‐parietal junction and adjacent areas and is therefore associated with perceptual processing (Nieuwenhuis et al, ) and memory updating (Ernst & Steinhauser, ). In this case, the P300 after feedback with positive valence might reflect processing of perceptual information of correct trials in order to update the internal model of the task.…”

Linking brain electrical signals elicited by current outcomes with future risk decision-making

“…In contrast, San Martín et al (2013) argued that the P3, which is associated with a memory updating process that guides future behavior, predicted decision adjustment on subsequent trials. In a probabilistic gambling task which required players to learn the optimal strategy, San Martín et al (2013) found out that a larger fronto-central P3a indicated higher likelihoods for the participants to change their choices, while the FRN showed no relation with behavioral data (see also Chase et al, 2011; Ernst and Steinhauser, 2012; Zhang et al, 2013). In sum, previous studies have yielded heterogeneous findings about the relationship between the ERP components following outcome presentation and subsequent decision-making behavior.…”

Differential effects of instructed and objective feedback reliability on feedback‐related brain activity

“…Second, the error positivity, a P3‐like component following internally detected errors, has been assumed to reflect the accumulation of evidence that an error has occurred (Steinhauser & Yeung, , ). Similarly, the feedback‐related P3 could reflect the accumulation of evidence that a decision was correct (Ernst & Steinhauser, ; Schiffer et al, ). This could explain why larger P3 amplitudes following positive compared to negative feedback were observed (for an overview, see San Martín, ).…”

“…The P3, a pronounced posterior positivity with a maximum between 300–600 ms after stimulus onset (for a review, see Polich, ), can be considered to be a correlate of this explicit feedback processing. This assumption is supported by research tying this component to the allocation of attentional resources and to working memory updating (Donchin & Coles, , Polich, ), and by findings showing that the P3 predicts learning from feedback in a multiple‐choice learning task (Ernst & Steinhauser, ) as well as behavioral adaptation after rule reversals in a probabilistic learning task (Chase, Swainson, Durham, Benham, & Cools, ; Schiffer et al, ). Thus, variations of the P3 amplitude can be considered to be indicative of the utilization of feedback by the explicit learning system.…”