15:00 - 16:30
Submission 413
Traces of Errors in Action Sequences: Binding Leverages Goals and Errors Asymmetrically for Adaptive Action Control
Posterwall-49
Presented by: Maria Nemeth
Maria NemethAnna FoersterChristian FringsRoland PfisterBirte Moeller
Trier University, Germany
The automatic binding and retrieval of responses serve as core mechanisms in the control of action sequences, providing efficient shortcuts to recent actions. Although binding has traditionally been assumed to occur only for successfully performed actions, recent evidence demonstrated binding for action slips (actions, in which intentions were correct but execution failed) with co-occuring stimuli and effects. Yet, it remains unknown how action slips are embedded within ongoing action sequences and how their cognitive representation shapes subsequent behavior. Here, we investigated which aspects of an action slip become integrated with surrounding correct actions. Participants performed a speeded response task. Following an action slip, we measured facilitation for the repetition of either the previously intended correct response of the action slip, the previously executed erroneous response, or a neutral response. Two asymmetric binding patterns emerged. When examining integration with the subsequent correct response, both the intended correct response and the actual error were bound to that next response. In contrast, for integration with the preceding correct response, only the intended correct action was bound and later retrieved. This dissociation highlights two adaptive functions of error-related binding: (1) prioritizing goal-consistent representations that support future successful performance, and (2) integrating executed errors into the action sequence in a way that may support learning about contingencies and structure in the environment.