Executive inhibition: A study of postcommission error slowing and postomission error speeding

Abstract

Error detection, error regulation, and the way of facilitating regulation are fundamental to successful adaptation to the environment. Previous studies have demonstrated the cognitive process that underlies error detection, but it is still not clear whether this cognitive process is influenced by internal and external factors of error type and feedback. The purpose of this study was to investigate the regulation of commission and omission errors in executive inhibition tasks and the effects of feedback on error regulation. Three tasks, including a go/no-go task with visual feedback, a go/no-go task with auditory feedback, and a stop signal task with visual feedback were conducted separately with three independent groups of healthy university students. We found postcommission error slowing and postomission error speeding in the reaction times. Correct visual feedback increased all the reaction times for executive inhibition compared with incorrect feedback. The results indicated that the regulation of reaction time after different types of error may be an adaptive behavioral manifestation and that performance feedback facilitates overall inhibitory control.