Different temporal dynamics after conflicts and errors in children and adults

Monitoring and control processes within executive functions: Is post-error slowing related to pre-error speeding in children?

Both pre-error speeding and post-error slowing reflect monitoring and control strategies. Post-error slowing is relatively well-established in children, whereas pre-error speeding is much less studied. Here we investigated (a) whether kindergarten and first-grade children show pre-error speeding in a cognitive control task (Hearts and Flowers) and, if so, (b) whether post-error slowing is associated with pre-error speeding. We analyzed the data from 153 kindergartners and 468 first-graders. Both kindergartners and first-graders showed significant pre-error speeding and post-error slowing, with no differences between the two samples in the magnitude of each. The magnitude of pre-error speeding and post-error slowing was correlated within individuals in both samples and to a similar extent. That is, children who sped up more extremely toward an error also slowed down more extremely after an error. These findings provide evidence that pre-error speeding and post-error slowing are related in children as early as kindergarten age and may in concert reflect how optimal children's monitoring and control of their performance is in a cognitive control task.

Training kindergarten children on learning from their mistakes

This study investigated whether feedback on their errors and speed improves kindergarten children's performance in an executive function (EF) task. Children from Switzerland (N = 213, 49% female, Mage = 6.4 years) were tested in the Hearts and Flowers task pre- and post-training and trained either on a variant of this task with (n = 71) or without feedback (n = 72), or on a control learning task (n = 70). The feedback group performed more efficiently than the no-feedback group during the intervention and partially also in the post-test. Both EF training groups performed more efficiently than the control group in the post-test. These results suggest that kindergarten children detect and monitor their errors and even get better at it given the opportunity to practice. Moreover, they benefit additionally from external feedback. Integrating feedback into computerized cognitive training (and learning apps) could be a potential avenue for interventions in school settings.

Do reflection prompts promote children's conflict monitoring and revision of misconceptions?

We tested whether reflection prompts enhance conflict monitoring and facilitate the revision of misconceptions. German children (N = 97, Mage = 7.20, 56% female) were assigned to a prediction or a prediction with reflection condition that included reflection prompts. Children in the prediction with reflection condition (1) showed greater error-related response times and pupil dilation responses, indicating better conflict monitoring, and (2) performed closer to an optimal Bayesian learner, indicating better monitoring-based control. However, by the end of the study, all children had similar levels of misconception revision. Thus, reflection prompts can enhance learning from anomalous evidence by improving conflict monitoring, but they may need to be repeated often to sustain their beneficial effects.

The Development of Cognitive Control in Preschoolers and Kindergarteners: The Case of Post-Error Slowing and Delayed Disinhibition

This study aimed to investigate two specific behavioral manifestations of the executive attention systems in preschoolers and kindergarteners, beyond the unique contribution of intelligence. We tested post-error slowing [RT¯Post-error trial-RT¯Not post-error trial] as a marker of reactive control and delayed disinhibition as a novel marker for proactive control. One hundred and eighty preschool- and kindergarten-aged children, as well as their mothers (final sample: 155 children and 174 mothers), performed an adapted task based on Go/NoGo and Stroop-like paradigms-the emotional day-night task. The children showed reliable post-error slowing and delayed disinhibition (mean size effects of 238.18 ms and 58.31 ms, respectively), while the adult size effects were 40-50% smaller. The post-error slowing effect was present for both sexes in all the tested ages, while the delayed disinhibition effect was present only for girls. Both effects showed large individual differences that became smaller in adulthood. Our findings emphasize the earlier maturation of reactive control compared to proactive control, and the earlier maturation of proactive cognitive control in girls compared to boys.

Overshooting cognitive control adjustments in older age: Evidence from conflict- and error-related slowing in the Stroop, Simon, and flanker tasks

Although humans gain considerable knowledge from young to older adulthood, aging is also associated with cognitive deficits. This study investigated age-related changes in dynamic cognitive control adjustments after cognitive conflicts and errors. Specifically, we compared younger and older adults' time courses of two established phenomena - post-conflict slowing and post-error slowing. Both age groups completed modified versions of three widely used cognitive conflict tasks (Stroop, Simon, and flanker task). In these tasks, occasional incongruent information triggered a conflict that had to be resolved accordingly but sometimes elicited errors. We tracked conflict- and error-related slowing across four trials after a correct conflict trial (i.e., post-conflict slowing) and an incorrect conflict trial (i.e., post-error slowing). Post-error slowing was generally stronger than post-conflict slowing. Older adults showed a disproportionally strong slowing on the first post-error trial compared to younger adults. In contrast, on subsequent trials, older adults showed a relatively stronger speed up. This pattern of results was consistent across all three tasks. The greater cross-trial response time changes in older adults suggests a deficit in fine-tuning cognitive control adjustments.

Error observation as a window on performance monitoring in social contexts? A systematic review

Living in a social world requires social monitoring, i.e., the ability to keep track of others' actions and mistakes. Here, we demonstrate the good reliability of the behavioral and neurophysiological indexes ascribed to social monitoring. We also show that no consensus exists on the cognitive bases of this phenomenology and discuss three alternative hypotheses: (i) the direct matching hypothesis, postulating that observed errors are processed through automatic simulation; (ii) the attentional hypothesis, considering errors as unexpected events that take resources away from task processing; and (iii) the goal representation hypothesis, which weighs social error monitoring depending on how relevant the other's task is to the observer's goals. To date, evidence on the role played by factors that could help to disentangle these hypotheses (e.g., the human vs. non-human nature of the actor, the error rate, and the reward context) is insufficient, although the goal representation hypothesis seems to receive more support. Theory-driven experimental designs are needed to enlighten this debate and clarify the role of error monitoring during interactive exchanges.

The Relationship between Executive Functions, Working Memory, and Intelligence in Kindergarten Children

Executive functions (EF), working memory (WM), and intelligence are closely associated, but distinct constructs. What underlies the associations between these constructs, especially in childhood, is not well understood. In this pre-registered study, along with the traditional aggregate accuracy and RT-based measures of EF, we investigated post-error slowing (PES) in EF as a manifestation of metacognitive processes (i.e., monitoring and cognitive control) in relation to WM and intelligence. Thereby, we aimed to elucidate whether these metacognitive processes may be one underlying component to explain the associations between these constructs. We tested kindergarten children (M_age = 6.4 years, SD_age = 0.3) in an EF, WM (verbal and visuospatial), and fluid (non-verbal) intelligence task. We found significant associations of mainly the inhibition component of EF with fluid intelligence and verbal WM, and between verbal WM and intelligence. No significant associations emerged between the PES in EF and intelligence or WM. These results suggest that in the kindergarten age, inhibition rather than monitoring and cognitive control might be the underlying component that explains the associations between EF, WM, and intelligence.

Hearts, flowers, and fruits: All children need to reveal their post-error slowing

Slowing down responses after errors (i.e., post-error slowing [PES]) is an established finding in adults. Yet PES in young children is still not well understood. In this study, we investigated (a) whether young children show PES in tasks with different types of cognitive conflict and differing demands on executive functions, (b) whether PES is adaptive and efficient in the sense that it is associated with better task performance, and (c) whether PES correlates between tasks. We tested 4- to 6-year-old children on the Funny Fruits task (FF; n = 143), a Stroop-like task that incorporates semantic conflict and taxes children's inhibition skills, and the Hearts and Flowers task (HF; n = 170), which incorporates spatial conflict and taxes children's inhibition skills in its incongruent block and taxes both inhibition and cognitive flexibility (rule-switching) skills in its mixed block. A subgroup of children were tested on both FF and HF (n = 74). Results revealed that, first, children showed PES in FF and both blocks of HF, indicating that PES occurs in both types of conflict and under varying executive demands. Second, PES was associated with task accuracy, but only for FF and the mixed HF. Third, a between-task association in PES emerged only between FF and the mixed HF. Together, these findings indicate that PES is still a developing strategy in young children; it is present but only adaptive for, and correlates between, semantic inhibition and spatial flexibility.

Six- to eight-year-olds’ performance in the Heart and Flower task: Emerging proactive cognitive control

The Heart and Flower task is used worldwide to measure age-dependent and individual differences in executive functions and/or cognitive control. The task reliably maps age and individual differences and these have consistently been found to be predictive for different aspects of school readiness and academic achievement. The idea has been put forward that there is a developmental shift in how children approach such a task. While 6-year-olds’ tend to adapt their task strategy ad hoc and reactively, older children increasingly engage in proactive cognitive control. Proactive cognitive control entails finding the right response speed without risking errors, always dependent on the cognitive conflict. The main goal of the present contribution was to examine children’s adjustments of response speed as a function of age and cognitive conflict by addressing RTs surrounding errors (i.e., errors and post-error trials). Data from a large sample with three age groups was used (N = 106 6-year-olds’ with a mean age of 6 years; 3 months; N = 108 7-year-olds’ with a mean age of 7 years; 4 months; N = 78 8-year-olds’ with a mean age of 8 years; 1 month). Response speed adjustments and the development thereof were targeted both across the Flower and Mixed block, respectively, and within these blocks focusing on errors and post-error slowing. Results revealed evidence for a developmental shift toward more efficient proactive cognitive control between 6 and 8 years of age, with the older but not the younger children strategically slowing down in the Mixed block and smoother post-error slowing. At the same time, we found that even the youngest age group has emerging proactive cognitive control skills at their disposal when addressing post-error slowing in the Flower block. The present study thus tracks the early roots of later efficient executive functions and cognitive control, contributes to a better understanding of how developmental progression in cognitive control is achieved, and highlights new avenues for research in this domain.

Post-error Slowing Reflects the Joint Impact of Adaptive and Maladaptive Processes During Decision Making

Errors and their consequences are typically studied by investigating changes in decision speed and accuracy in trials that follow an error, commonly referred to as “post-error adjustments”. Many studies have reported that subjects slow down following an error, a phenomenon called “post-error slowing” (PES). However, the functional significance of PES is still a matter of debate as it is not always adaptive. That is, it is not always associated with a gain in performance and can even occur with a decline in accuracy. Here, we hypothesized that the nature of PES is influenced by one’s speed-accuracy tradeoff policy, which determines the overall level of choice accuracy in the task at hand. To test this hypothesis, we had subjects performing a task in two distinct contexts (separate days), which either promoted speed (hasty context) or cautiousness (cautious context), allowing us to consider post-error adjustments according to whether subjects performed choices with a low or high accuracy level, respectively. Accordingly, our data indicate that post-error adjustments varied according to the context in which subjects performed the task, with PES being solely significant in the hasty context (low accuracy). In addition, we only observed a gain in performance after errors in a specific trial type, suggesting that post-error adjustments depend on a complex combination of processes that affect the speed of ensuing actions as well as the degree to which such PES comes with a gain in performance.

Age-related qualitative differences in post-error cognitive control adjustments

Detecting an error signals the need for increased cognitive control and behavioural adjustments. Considerable development in performance monitoring and cognitive control is evidenced by lower error rates and faster response times in multi-trial executive function tasks with age. Besides these quantitative changes, we were interested in whether qualitative changes in balancing accuracy and speed contribute to developmental progression during elementary school years. We conducted two studies investigating the temporal and developmental trajectories of post-error slowing in three prominent cognitive conflict tasks (Stroop, Simon, and flanker). We instructed children (8-, 10-, and 12-year-old) and adults to respond as fast and as accurately as possible and measured their response times on four trials after correct and incorrect responses to a cognitive conflict. Results revealed that all age groups had longer response times on post-error versus post-correct trials, reflecting post-error slowing. Critically, slowing on the first post-error trial declined with age, suggesting an age-related reduction in the orienting response towards errors. This age effect diminished on subsequent trials, suggesting more fine-tuned cognitive control adjustments with age. Overall, the consistent pattern across tasks suggests an age-related change from a relatively strong orienting response to more balanced cognitive control adaptations.