Three Kinds of Error-Signalling Responses in a Serial Choice Task

Abstract

During serial self-paced choice response tasks mean reaction times (RTs) for responses which are made in order to correct errors are faster than mean RTs for other correct responses. Experiment I showed that subjects can accurately correct errors in a four-choice task by making the response which they should have made, even though they are given no indication that an error has occurred. Experiment 2 showed that subjects correct their errors faster and more accurately when they use correction procedure than when they make a common response to all errors. The implication that subjects can correct errors because they know what response they should have made allows some comments on the constraints which must be met by various models which have been proposed to explain error-correction.