The influence of unaware errors on post-error adjustment: Evidence from electrophysiological analysis

Abstract

control, the time-frequency analysis is conducted in this experiment. It has been suggested that the alpha band (8-14 Hz) reflects the trial-by-trial behavioral adjustment. Thus, alpha power is chosen as the neural indicator. As a result, the post-error reaction time indicated two dissociated behavior patterns with speeding up following aware errors and slowing down following unaware errors. However, accuracy in trials following aware and unaware errors was significantly higher than for trials following correct go. At the neural level, alpha (−500 to 500 ms) power was stronger for aware errors than for unaware errors. Moreover, the alpha was activated before the subjective report of error awareness for aware errors, but the alpha was activated after the subjective report of error awareness for unaware errors. Current behavioral results showed that aware and unaware errors both successfully optimized post-error performance, but the two error types adopted different methods to adjust post-error behaviors. The time-frequency analysis revealed that aware errors led to sustained attention control after responses, but unaware errors led to temporary attention control induced by the subjective report of error awareness. Therefore, these findings might suggest that the adjustments following aware errors were based on a strategy such as proactive control, whereas the adjustments following unaware errors were based on a strategy such as reactive control.