Human Performance Monitoring Research: What did we achive, what remains to be solved?

Human performance monitoring has attracted the interest of many researchers. A steady increase in studies investigating the implementation of monitoring functions in the human brain and employing a number of different approaches could be observed over the recent years. A major part of this research is dedicated to error processing. This is not astonishing, as human life and development cannot be imagined to take place without errors. Errors themselves are often the basis of new strategies and learning. Anticipation, detection, correction, and avoidance of errors are major parts of goal-directed behavior. Investigation of these processes promises to reveal many insights in how humans can flexibly adjust to a continuously changing environment. Thus, the investigation of performance monitoring offers a way to understand the most complex psychological processes in human cognition. In addition, neuroimaging, electrophysiology and psychophysiology allow to investigate how these functions are implemented in the human brain. In July, 2003, we had the great pleasure to organize the second conference exclusively dedicated to human performance monitoring research. Sixty contributions by most distinguished investigators as well as researchers at the beginning of their career demonstrated the remarkably fast development of the field. The outstanding presentations as well as fruitful and constructive discussions formed an enthusiastic atmosphere. We agree with numerous participants that both the Jena conference organized by Wolfgang Miltner and Mike Coles in 2000 and the recent Dortmund conference were highly successful and should be the starting point of a series of meetings dedicated to performance monitoring research. This volume is intended to reflect the current state of performance monitoring research. It contains peer-reviewed original research contributions and overview papers from researchers who took part in the conference. It addresses most questions discussed on the conference in July, 2003. In the first chapter, contributions on the event-related potential correlates of error processing, the error negativity (Ne) or error-related negativity (ERN) are integrated. Chapter two addresses the hemodynamic correlates of error processing as well as conflict monitoring. The third chapter comprises papers connecting performance monitoring to related cognitive processes, such as decision making, uncertainty monitoring, and affect. In addition, papers in this chapter discuss the different theories of performance monitoring. Chapter four is dedicated to response inhibition, a process which is often involved when errors are detected or response conflicts occur. The specific ERP responses to feedback and observed errors are discussed in chapter five. Chapter six sheds light on …