title: Strategy Changes After Errors Improve Performance.
abstract: The observation that performance does not improve following errors contradicts the traditional view on error monitoring (Fiehler et al., 2005; Núñez Castellar et al., 2010; Notebaert and Verguts, 2011). However, recent findings suggest that typical laboratory tasks provided us with a narrow window on error monitoring (Jentzsch and Dudschig, 2009; Desmet et al., 2012). In this study we investigated strategy-use after errors in a mental arithmetic task. In line with our hypothesis, this more complex task did show increased performance after errors. More specifically, switching to a different strategy after an error resulted in improved performance, while repeating the same strategy resulted in worse performance. These results show that in more ecological valid tasks, post-error behavioral improvement can be observed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Liesbet
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Van der Borght
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Charlotte
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Desmet
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Wim
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Notebaert
keywords: cognitive control; mental arithmetic; post-error accuracy increase; post-error slowing; strategy-use