Error Processing During the Online Retrieval of Probabilistic Sequence Knowledge

Adaptive behavior involves rapid error processing and action evaluation. However, it has not been clarified how errors contribute to automatic behaviors that can be retrieved to successfully adapt to our complex environment. Automatic behaviors strongly rely on the process of probabilistic sequence learning and memory. Therefore, the present study investigated error processing during the online retrieval of probabilistic sequence knowledge. Twenty-four healthy young adults acquired and continuously retrieved a repeating stimulus sequence reflected by reaction time (RT) changes on a rapid forced-choice RT task. Performance was compared with a baseline that denoted the processing of random stimuli embedded in the probabilistic sequence. At the neurophysiological level, event-related brain potentials synchronized to responses were measured. Error processing was tracked by the error negativity (Ne) and the error positivity (Pe). The mean amplitude of the Ne gradually decreased as the task progressed, similarly for the sequence retrieval and the embedded baseline process. The mean amplitude of the Pe increased over time, likewise, irrespective of the type of the stimuli. Accordingly, we propose that automatic error detection (Ne) and conscious error evaluation (Pe) are not sensitive to sequence learning and retrieval. Overall, the present study provides insight into how error processing takes place for the retrieval of sequence knowledge in a probabilistic environment.

[1]  Marco Steinhauser,et al.  Error significance but not error expectancy predicts error-related negativities for different error types , 2016, Behavioural Brain Research SreeTestContent1.

[2]  Jonathan D. Cohen,et al.  The neural basis of error detection: conflict monitoring and the error-related negativity. , 2004, Psychological review.

[3]  F. Gombos,et al.  Deconstructing Procedural Memory: Different Learning Trajectories and Consolidation of Sequence and Statistical Learning , 2018, bioRxiv.

[4]  Thomas F Münte,et al.  On the influence of informational content and key-response effect mapping on implicit learning and error monitoring in the serial reaction time (SRT) task , 2017, Experimental Brain Research.

[5]  R. C. Oldfield.  The assessment and analysis of handedness: the Edinburgh inventory. , 1971, Neuropsychologia.

[6]  Piotr Jaskowski,et al.  Evidence for an Integrative Role of P3b in Linking Reaction to Perception , 2005 .

[7]  Marco Steinhauser,et al.  Error awareness as evidence accumulation: effects of speed-accuracy trade-off on error signaling , 2012, Front. Hum. Neurosci..

[8]  K. R. Ridderinkhof,et al.  Error-related brain potentials are differentially related to awareness of response errors: evidence from an antisaccade task. , 2001, Psychophysiology.

[9]  N. Yeung,et al.  On the ERN and the significance of errors. , 2005, Psychophysiology.

[10]  Sunbin Song,et al.  Sleep Does Not Benefit Probabilistic Motor Sequence Learning , 2007, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[11]  M. Ullsperger,et al.  Post-Error Adjustments , 2011, Front. Psychology.

[12]  Marco Steinhauser,et al.  Error-related brain activity and adjustments of selective attention following errors , 2011, NeuroImage.

[13]  V. Csépe,et al.  Tracking the implicit acquisition of nonadjacent transitional probabilities by ERPs , 2019, Memory & Cognition.

[14]  Pierre Jolicoeur,et al.  Electrophysiological correlates of motor sequence learning , 2014, BMC Neuroscience.

[15]  R. Verleger.  On the utility of P3 latency as an index of mental chronometry. , 1997, Psychophysiology.

[16]  Clay B. Holroyd,et al.  The neural basis of human error processing: reinforcement learning, dopamine, and the error-related negativity. , 2002, Psychological review.

[17]  Nick Yeung,et al.  Shared Neural Markers of Decision Confidence and Error Detection , 2015, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[18]  J. Hohnsbein,et al.  Effects of crossmodal divided attention on late ERP components. II. Error processing in choice reaction tasks. , 1991, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[19]  A. Riesel,et al.  Reliability of the ERN across multiple tasks as a function of increasing errors. , 2013, Psychophysiology.

[20]  Sunbin Song,et al.  Implicit probabilistic sequence learning is independent of explicit awareness. , 2007, Learning & memory.

[21]  Karolina Janacsek,et al.  Age-dependent and coordinated shift in performance between implicit and explicit skill learning , 2013, Front. Comput. Neurosci..

[22]  E. Wagenmakers,et al.  Testing theories of post-error slowing , 2011, Attention, perception & psychophysics.

[23]  D. Meyer,et al.  A Neural System for Error Detection and Compensation , 1993 .

[24]  Terrence J. Sejnowski,et al.  Enhanced detection of artifacts in EEG data using higher-order statistics and independent component analysis , 2007, NeuroImage.

[25]  M. Botvinick,et al.  Anterior cingulate cortex, error detection, and the online monitoring of performance. , 1998, Science.

[26]  M. Botvinick,et al.  Conflict monitoring and cognitive control. , 2001, Psychological review.

[27]  Birte U. Forstmann,et al.  How to measure post-error slowing: A confound and a simple solution , 2012 .

[28]  Nicola K. Ferdinand,et al.  Event-related potential correlates of declarative and non-declarative sequence knowledge , 2010, Neuropsychologia.

[29]  K. R. Ridderinkhof,et al.  To P(E) or not to P(E): a P3-like ERP component reflecting the processing of response errors. , 2009, Psychophysiology.

[30]  K. Janacsek,et al.  Dynamics of EEG functional connectivity during statistical learning , 2017, Neurobiology of Learning and Memory.

[31]  Clay B. Holroyd,et al.  Why is there an ERN/Ne on correct trials? Response representations, stimulus-related components, and the theory of error-processing , 2001, Biological Psychology.

[32]  Thomas F Münte,et al.  Human error monitoring during implicit and explicit learning of a sensorimotor sequence , 2003, Neuroscience Research.

[33]  Karolina Janacsek,et al.  ERPs differentiate the sensitivity to statistical probabilities and the learning of sequential structures during procedural learning , 2018, Biological Psychology.

[34]  Thérèse J. M. Overbeek,et al.  Dissociable Components of Error Processing on the Functional Significance of the Pe Vis-à-vis the Ern/ne Performance Monitoring Processes Reflected in the Ne and Pe Review of Studies That Report Both Ne and Pe: Associations and Dissociations Pharmacological Effects , 2022 .

[35]  Tomifusa Kuboki,et al.  Explicit knowledge and intention to learn in sequence learning: an event-related potential study , 2005, Neuroreport.

[36]  T. Endrass,et al.  ERP correlates of conscious error recognition: aware and unaware errors in an antisaccade task , 2007, The European journal of neuroscience.

[37]  F Rösler,et al.  Implicit and explicit learning of event sequences: evidence for distinct coding of perceptual and motor representations. , 2000, Acta psychologica.

[38]  Marcia K. Johnson,et al.  Implicit Perceptual Anticipation Triggered by Statistical Learning , 2010, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[39]  Charles H Hillman,et al.  On the number of trials necessary for stabilization of error-related brain activity across the life span. , 2010, Psychophysiology.

[40]  Simon P. Kelly,et al.  Tracking neural correlates of successful learning over repeated sequence observations , 2016, NeuroImage.

[41]  Axel Mecklinger,et al.  Error and Deviance Processing in Implicit and Explicit Sequence Learning , 2008, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[42]  Greg Hajcak,et al.  The stability of error-related brain activity with increasing trials. , 2009, Psychophysiology.

[43]  Marco Steinhauser,et al.  Enhanced error-related negativity on flanker errors: error expectancy or error significance? , 2012, Psychophysiology.

[44]  Morten H. Christiansen,et al.  The long road of statistical learning research: past, present and future , 2017, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[45]  Emanuel Donchin,et al.  The Error-Related Negativity , 2018, Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

[46]  R. Simons,et al.  The way of our errors: theme and variations. , 2010, Psychophysiology.

[47]  Rolf Verleger,et al.  Testing the stimulus-to-response bridging function of the oddball-P3 by delayed response signals and residue iteration decomposition (RIDE) , 2014, NeuroImage.

[48]  M. Coles,et al.  "Where did I go wrong?" A psychophysiological analysis of error detection. , 1995, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[49]  R. Baker,et al.  When is an error not a prediction error? An electrophysiological investigation , 2009, Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience.