How task errors affect subsequent behavior: Evidence from distributional analyses of task-switching effects

Steinhauser, Marco; Hübner, Ronald

doi:10.3758/mc.36.5.979

Cited by 25 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Such effects were thought to be diminished when post-error responding was slowed, allowing time for slow inhibitory processes to act on the error-inducing taskset [56]. Our results are not compatible with this interpretation as errors were found to induce slowing on both subsequent taskset repetitions and switches.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 85%

Context Specificity of Post-Error and Post-Conflict Cognitive Control Adjustments

Förster

Cho

2014

PLoS ONE

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There has been accumulating evidence that cognitive control can be adaptively regulated by monitoring for processing conflict as an index of online control demands. However, it is not yet known whether top-down control mechanisms respond to processing conflict in a manner specific to the operative task context or confer a more generalized benefit. While previous studies have examined the taskset-specificity of conflict adaptation effects, yielding inconsistent results, control-related performance adjustments following errors have been largely overlooked. This gap in the literature underscores recent debate as to whether post-error performance represents a strategic, control-mediated mechanism or a nonstrategic consequence of attentional orienting. In the present study, evidence of generalized control following both high conflict correct trials and errors was explored in a task-switching paradigm. Conflict adaptation effects were not found to generalize across tasksets, despite a shared response set. In contrast, post-error slowing effects were found to extend to the inactive taskset and were predictive of enhanced post-error accuracy. In addition, post-error performance adjustments were found to persist for several trials and across multiple task switches, a finding inconsistent with attentional orienting accounts of post-error slowing. These findings indicate that error-related control adjustments confer a generalized performance benefit and suggest dissociable mechanisms of post-conflict and post-error control.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 85%

Context Specificity of Post-Error and Post-Conflict Cognitive Control Adjustments

Förster

Cho

2014

PLoS ONE

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“…Converging evidence for this view was obtained in a different paradigm by Steinhauser and Hübner (2006; see also Steinhauser & Hübner, 2008). Using response accuracy as the main dependent variable, they implemented a deadline procedure in the task-switching paradigm (with go trials only), which forced participants to respond quickly to the target stimulus at the expense of accuracy.…”

Section: The Status Of the Responsementioning

confidence: 96%

The Origin of Switch Costs: Task Preparation or Task Application?

Los

Burg

2010

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

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Recent studies have shown that switch costs (i.e., slower responding on task-alternation trials than on task-repetition trials) are not observed when on the preceding trial a no-go signal instructed the participant to withhold the response to the target stimulus. This finding suggests that neither task set is inhibited on no-go trials, and that the origin of switch costs is located in the application of the task set to the target stimulus. However, these studies also showed that responding after a no-go trial is substantially slower than after a go trial. This suggests that both task sets are inhibited on no-go trials and that switch costs originate from the preparation of a task set. In two experiments we created conditions that revealed an absence of switch costs in conjunction with relatively fast responding after no-go trials. Together these findings confirm that switch costs originate from the application of the task set.

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“…In support of this possibility, numerous studies examining RT distributions have shown that effects of independent variables can be particularly pronounced for slow responses (e.g., Balota, Yap, Cortese, & Watson, 2008;Ridderinkoff, 2002;Steinhauser & Hübner, 2008). Where this trend occurs, one might expect that slower subjects should generate larger effects of a manipulation.…”

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confidence: 87%