Errors in Task Switching: Investigating Error Aftereffects in a N-2 Repetition Cost Paradigm

Studies of switching between tasks and studies of error commission have both provided solid behavioral measures of executive control. Nonetheless, a gap remains between these strands of research. In three experiments we sought to reduce this gap by assessing the impact of task errors on N-2 repetition costs, an effect supposedly related to task-set inhibition. Based on previous literature reporting a task-switch benefit following task errors, due to incidental learning of the erroneously executed task-set, we predicted N-2 repetition costs to be decreased after task errors in Trial N-2, relative to correct responses. Furthermore, we predicted this effect to be present only when corrective control mechanisms would not have the time to build up on the post-error trial (i.e., following fast post-error trial only). This hypothesis was tested in a three-tasks paradigm using incongruent stimuli, under the assumption that errors on such trials are partly due to task confusions. Consistent with our predictions, N-2 repetition costs following N-2 errors were found to be reduced when responses in Trial N-1 were fast but were present when the N-1 response was slow. Taken together, our results suggest that task execution leads to associative strengthening of the corresponding task-set, irrespective of response accuracy, and that such automatic strengthening can be counteracted by slowly acting control mechanisms.