Citation

Dutilh G, Vandekerckhove J, Forstmann BU, Keuleers E, Brysbaert M, Wagenmakers EJ. Atten. Percept. Psychophys. 2012; 74(2): 454-465.

Affiliation

University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, gilles.dutilh@gmail.com.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.3758/s13414-011-0243-2

PMID

22105857

PMCID

PMC3283767

Abstract

People tend to slow down after they make an error. This phenomenon, generally referred to as post-error slowing, has been hypothesized to reflect perceptual distraction, time wasted on irrelevant processes, an a priori bias against the response made in error, increased variability in a priori bias, or an increase in response caution. Although the response caution interpretation has dominated the empirical literature, little research has attempted to test this interpretation in the context of a formal process model. Here, we used the drift diffusion model to isolate and identify the psychological processes responsible for post-error slowing. In a very large lexical decision data set, we found that post-error slowing was associated with an increase in response caution and-to a lesser extent-a change in response bias. In the present data set, we found no evidence that post-error slowing is caused by perceptual distraction or time wasted on irrelevant processes. These results support a response-monitoring account of post-error slowing.

Language: en