Journal Article

The Pupillary Orienting Response Predicts Adaptive Behavioral Adjustment after Errors

van Moort, Marianne L., Nieuwenhuis, Sander, Murphy, Peter R.

2016

Overview

Reaction time (RT) is commonly observed to slow down after an error. This post-error slowing (PES) has been thought to arise from the strategic adoption of a more cautious response mode following deployment of cognitive control. Recently, an alternative account has suggested that PES results from interference due to an error-evoked orienting response. We investigated whether error-related orienting may in fact be a pre-cursor to adaptive post-error behavioral adjustment when the orienting response resolves before subsequent trial onset. We measured pupil dilation, a prototypical measure of autonomic orienting, during performance of a choice RT task with long inter-stimulus intervals, and found that the trial-by-trial magnitude of the error-evoked pupil response positively predicted both PES magnitude and the likelihood that the following response would be correct. These combined findings suggest that the magnitude of the error-related orienting response predicts an adaptive change of response strategy following errors, and thereby promote a reconciliation of the orienting and adaptive control accounts of PES.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Accuracy / Adaptation, Psychological / Adaptive control / Adjustment / Adult / Behavior / Biology and Life Sciences / Cognition / Cognition & reasoning / Cognitive ability / Error analysis / Error correction / Female / Humans / Information processing / Male / Medicine and Health Sciences / Neurons / Neurosciences / Orientation / Orienting response / Physical Sciences / Psychology / Psychomotor Performance / Pupil - physiology / Reaction Time / Reaction time (Psychology) / Reaction time task / Research and Analysis Methods / Young Adult