Error cancellation

Disentangling decision errors from action execution in mouse-tracking studies: The case of effect-based action control

Mouse-tracking is regarded as a powerful technique to investigate latent cognitive and emotional states. However, drawing inferences from this manifold data source carries the risk of several pitfalls, especially when using aggregated data rather than single-trial trajectories. Researchers might reach wrong conclusions because averages lump together two distinct contributions that speak towards fundamentally different mechanisms underlying between-condition differences: influences from online-processing during action execution and influences from incomplete decision processes. Here, we propose a simple method to assess these factors, thus allowing us to probe whether process-pure interpretations are appropriate. By applying this method to data from 12 published experiments on ideomotor action control, we show that the interpretation of previous results changes when dissociating online processing from decision and initiation errors. Researchers using mouse-tracking to investigate cognition and emotion are therefore well advised to conduct detailed trial-by-trial analyses, particularly when they test for direct leakage of ongoing processing into movement trajectories.

Guess what? Only correct choices forge immediate stimulus-response bindings in guessing scenarios

A central mechanism of human action control is the prompt binding between actions and the stimuli provoking them. Perceiving the same stimuli again retrieves any bound responses, facilitating their execution. An open question is whether such binding and retrieval only emerges when stimulus-response rules are known upon taking action or also when agents are forced to guess and receive feedback about whether they were successful or not afterward. In two experiments, we tested the hypothesis that knowing rules before responding would boost binding between stimuli and responses during action-taking relative to guessing situations. Second, we assessed whether the content of the feedback matters for binding in that agents might use feedback to build correct stimulus-response bindings even for wrong guesses. We used a sequential prime-probe design to induce stimulus-response binding for prime responses that were either rule-based or guesses, and to measure retrieval of these bindings in response times and errors in the probe. Results indicate that binding and retrieval emerge for successful but not for wrong guesses. Binding effects for correct guesses were consistently small in effect size, suggesting that pre-established stimulus-response bindings from instructed rules might indeed boost binding when taking action.

Slip or fallacy? Effects of error severity on own and observed pitch error processing in pianists

Errors elicit a negative, mediofrontal, event-related potential (ERP), for both own errors (error-related negativity; ERN) and observed errors (here referred to as observer mediofrontal negativity; oMN). It is unclear, however, if the action-monitoring system codes action valence as an all-or-nothing phenomenon or if the system differentiates between errors of different severity. We investigated this question by recording electroencephalography (EEG) data of pianists playing themselves (Experiment 1) or watching others playing (Experiment 2). Piano pieces designed to elicit large errors were used. While active participants' ERN amplitudes differed between small and large errors, observers' oMN amplitudes did not. The different pattern in the two groups of participants was confirmed in an exploratory analysis comparing ERN and oMN directly. We suspect that both prediction and action mismatches can be coded in action monitoring systems, depending on the task, and a need-to-adapt signal is sent whenever mismatches happen to indicate the magnitude of the needed adaptation.

Deconstructing the Functional Significance of the Error-related Negativity (ERN) and Midline Frontal Theta Oscillations Using Stepwise Time-locking and Single-trial Response Dynamics

Error-related electroencephalographic potentials have been used for decades to develop theoretical models of response monitoring processes, study altered cognitive functioning in clinical populations, and more recently, to improve the performance of brain-computer interfaces. However, the vast majority of this research relies on discrete behavioral responses that confound error detection, response cancellation, error correction, and post-error cognitive and affective processes. By contrast, the present study demonstrates a novel, complementary method for isolating the functional correlates of error-related electroencephalographic responses using single-trial kinematic analyses of cursor trajectories and a stepwise time-locking analysis. The results reveal that the latency of the ERN, Pe, and medial-frontal theta oscillations are all strongly positively correlated with the latency at which an initiated error response is canceled, as indicated by the peak deceleration of the initiated movement prior to a corrective response. Results are discussed with respect to current theoretical models of error-related brain potentials and potential relevance to clinical applications.

Response Durations: A Flexible, No-Cost Tool for Psychological Science

Response durations for simple key presses are an easily available but heavily underused measure. Whereas response times dominate the toolbox of experimental psychologists and cognitive modelers alike, any study with standard key-press responses also allows for the measurement of such durations as the time from response onset to response offset. Moreover, response times and durations are decidedly independent, so response durations hold great promise as a means to uncover unique perspectives on cognitive processing. We showcase recent observations and corresponding theoretical frameworks to highlight that this inconspicuous measure deserves much more attention than it has attracted so far. Given that it comes at no extra cost for common experimental setups, any researcher is well advised to consider adding the measure of response duration to their empirical toolbox.

Error cancellation

The human cognitive system houses efficient mechanisms to monitor ongoing actions. Upon detecting an erroneous course of action, these mechanisms are commonly assumed to adjust cognitive processing to mitigate the error's consequences and to prevent future action slips. Here, we demonstrate that error detection has far earlier consequences by feeding back directly onto ongoing motor activity, thus cancelling erroneous movements immediately. We tested this prediction of immediate auto-correction by analysing how the force of correct and erroneous keypress actions evolves over time while controlling for cognitive and biomechanical constraints relating to response time and the peak force of a movement. We conclude that the force profiles are indicative of active cancellation by showing indications of shorter response durations for errors already within the first 100 ms, i.e. between the onset and the peak of the response, a timescale that has previously been related solely to error detection. This effect increased in a late phase of responding, i.e. after response force peaked until its offset, further corroborating that it indeed reflects cancellation efforts instead of consequences of planning or initiating the error.