Post-error slowing during instrumental learning is shaped by working memory-based choice strategies

Abstract

Post-error slowing (PES) - a relative increase in response time for a decision on trialtgiven an error on trialt-1 - is a well-known effect in studies of human decision-making. Post-error processing is reflected in neural signatures such as reduced activity in sensorimotor regions and increased activity in medial prefrontal cortex. PES is thought to reflect the deployment of executive resources to get task performance back on track. This provides a general account of PES that cuts across perceptual decision-making, memory, and learning tasks. With respect to PES and learning, things are complicated by the fact that learning often reflectsmultiple qualitatively different processes with distinct neural correlates. It is unclear if multiple processes shape PES during learning, or if PES reflects a policy for reacting to errors generated by one particular process (e.g., cortico-striatal reinforcement learning). Here we provide behavioral and computational evidence that PES is influenced by the operation of multiple distinct processes. Human subjects learned a simple visuomotor skill (arbitrary visuomotor association learning) under low load conditionsmore amenable to simple working memory-based strategies, and high load conditions that were putatively more reliant on trial-by-trial reinforcement learning. PES decreased withload, even when the progress of learning (i.e., reinforcement history) was accounted for. This result suggested that PES during learning is influenced by the recruitment of working memory. Indeed, observed PES effects were approximated by a computational model with parallel working memory and reinforcement learning systems that are differentially recruited according to cognitive load.