scholarly journals Rituals decrease the neural response to performance failure

PeerJ ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. e3363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas M. Hobson ◽  
Devin Bonk ◽  
Michael Inzlicht
Keyword(s):  
Executive Function ◽  
Experimental Design ◽  
Performance Improvement ◽  
Performance Monitoring ◽  
Neural Response ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Performance Deficit ◽  
Error Related Negativity ◽  
Performance Domains ◽  
Neural Monitoring

Rituals are found in all types of performance domains, from high-stakes athletics and military to the daily morning preparations of the working family. Yet despite their ubiquity and widespread importance for humans, we know very little of ritual’s causal basis and how (if at all) they facilitate goal-directed performance. Here, in a fully pre-registered pre/post experimental design, we examine a candidate proximal mechanism, the error-related negativity (ERN), in testing the prediction that ritual modulates neural performance-monitoring. Participants completed an arbitrary ritual—novel actions repeated at home over one week—followed by an executive function task in the lab during electroencephalographic (EEG) recording. Results revealed that relative to pre rounds, participants showed a reduced ERN in the post rounds, after completing the ritual in the lab. Despite a muted ERN, there was no evidence that the reduction in neural monitoring led to performance deficit (nor a performance improvement). Generally, the findings are consistent with the longstanding view that ritual buffers against uncertainty and anxiety. Our results indicate that ritual guides goal-directed performance by regulating the brain’s response to personal failure.

scholarly journals The Impact of Performance Goals on Cheating Depends on How Performance is Evaluated

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Daumiller ◽  
Stefan Janke
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Design ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
Performance Goals ◽  
Performance Tests ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Academic Cheating ◽  
Evaluation Standards ◽  
Evaluation Standard ◽  
New Knowledge ◽  
The Impact

We investigated how evaluation standards employed in performance tests affect the impact of performance goals (here: focused on appearance) on academic cheating. Thereby, we assumed that appearance goals would only lead to increased cheating if students’ performance was presumably evaluated based on results rather than on strategies applied to solve the questions. 169 university students (68.6% female) participated in an experimental design with 2 (induced appearance goals versus no goal induction) x 2 (process-based versus result-based evaluation standards) between-subject conditions. We assessed cheating using a confederate student observing participants’ behaviors and by measuring whether participants reported that they solved unsolvable questions. Confirming our hypotheses, we found that students were only more likely to cheat when appearance goals were induced and the evaluation standard focused on the results. This new knowledge helps to explain mixed findings regarding how performance goals affect cheating and provides opportunities to reduce cheating in high-stakes testing situations.

scholarly journals Error Awareness Revisited: Accumulation of Multimodal Evidence from Central and Autonomic Nervous Systems

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (10) ◽  
pp. 3021-3036 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan R. Wessel ◽  
Claudia Danielmeier ◽  
Markus Ullsperger
Keyword(s):  
Heart Rate ◽  
Performance Monitoring ◽  
Autonomic Nervous ◽  
Error Awareness ◽  
Error Related Negativity ◽  
Positive Voltage ◽  
Error Positivity ◽  
Input Signals ◽  
Rate Deceleration ◽  
Brain Behavior

The differences between erroneous actions that are consciously perceived as errors and those that go unnoticed have recently become an issue in the field of performance monitoring. In EEG studies, error awareness has been suggested to influence the error positivity (Pe) of the response-locked event-related brain potential, a positive voltage deflection prominent approximately 300 msec after error commission, whereas the preceding error-related negativity (ERN) seemed to be unaffected by error awareness. Erroneous actions, in general, have been shown to promote several changes in ongoing autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity, yet such investigations have only rarely taken into account the question of subjective error awareness. In the first part of this study, heart rate, pupillometry, and EEG were recorded during an antisaccade task to measure autonomic arousal and activity of the CNS separately for perceived and unperceived errors. Contrary to our expectations, we observed differences in both Pe and ERN with respect to subjective error awareness. This was replicated in a second experiment, using a modified version of the same task. In line with our predictions, only perceived errors provoke the previously established post-error heart rate deceleration. Also, pupil size yields a more prominent dilatory effect after an erroneous saccade, which is also significantly larger for perceived than unperceived errors. On the basis of the ERP and ANS results as well as brain–behavior correlations, we suggest a novel interpretation of the implementation and emergence of error awareness in the brain. In our framework, several systems generate input signals (e.g., ERN, sensory input, proprioception) that influence the emergence of error awareness, which is then accumulated and presumably reflected in later potentials, such as the Pe.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN ON PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT OF THE HELIUM PURIFICATION SYSTEM OF HTR-10

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019.27 (0) ◽  
pp. 1581
Author(s):  
Fangfang Wang ◽  
Feng Xie ◽  
Chuangguo Hu ◽  
Xiaoming Chen ◽  
Lei Shi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Design ◽  
Performance Improvement ◽  
Purification System

scholarly journals The Role of Intact Frontostriatal Circuits in Error Processing

2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 651-664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Ullsperger ◽  
D. Yves von Cramon
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Basal Ganglia ◽  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Performance Monitoring ◽  
Brain Plasticity ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Cortical Circuits ◽  
Lateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Error Related Negativity

The basal ganglia have been suggested to play a key role in performance monitoring and resulting behavioral adjustments. It is assumed that the integration of prefrontal and motor cortico—striato—thalamo—cortical circuits provides contextual information to the motor anterior cingulate cortex regions to enable their function in performance monitoring. So far, direct evidence is missing, however. We addressed the involvement of frontostriatal circuits in performance monitoring by collecting event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and behavioral data in nine patients with focal basal ganglia lesions and seven patients with lateral prefrontal cortex lesions while they performed a flanker task. In both patient groups, the amplitude of the error-related negativity was reduced, diminishing the difference to the ERPs on correct responses. Despite these electrophysiological abnormalities, most of the patients were able to correct errors. Only in lateral prefrontal cortex patients whose lesions extended into the frontal white matter, disrupting the connections to the motor anterior cingulate cortex and the striatum, were error corrections severely impaired. In sum, the fronto—striato—thalamo—cortical circuits seem necessary for the generation of error-related negativity, even when brain plasticity has resulted in behavioral compensation of the damage. Thus, error-related ERPs in patients provide a sensitive measure of the integrity of the performance monitoring network.

scholarly journals Interpersonal touch enhances cognitive control: A neurophysiological investigation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Blair Saunders ◽  
Anja Riesel ◽  
Julia Klawohn ◽  
Michael Inzlicht
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Statistical Power ◽  
Performance Monitoring ◽  
Control Task ◽  
Romantic Couples ◽  
Repeated Measures Design ◽  
Interpersonal Touch ◽  
Neural Monitoring

Touch is central to mammalian communication, socialisation, and wellbeing. Despite this prominence, interpersonal touch is relatively understudied. In this preregistered investigation, we assessed the influence of interpersonal touch on the subjective, neural, and behavioural correlates of cognitive control. Forty-five romantic couples were recruited (N=90; dating>6 months), and one partner performed an inhibitory control task while electroencephalography was recorded to assess neural performance monitoring. Interpersonal touch was provided by the second partner, and was manipulated between experimental blocks. A within-subject repeated-measures design was used to maximise statistical power, with our sample size providing 80% power for even small effect sizes (ds > .25). Results indicated that participants were not only happier when receiving touch, but also showed increased neural processing of mistakes. Further exploratory cognitive modelling using indirect effects tests and drift diffusion models of decision making revealed that touch was indirectly associated with both improved inhibitory control and increased rates of evidence accumulation (drift rate) through its influence on neural monitoring. Thus, beyond regulating emotion and stress, interpersonal touch appears to enhance the neurocognitive processes underling flexible goal-directed behaviour.

scholarly journals Conflict monitoring, error detection, and inhibition: behavioural and electrophysiological features

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Egeto
Keyword(s):  
Error Detection ◽  
Performance Monitoring ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Error Monitoring ◽  
Conflict Monitoring ◽  
Error Awareness ◽  
Error Related Negativity ◽  
Error Positivity ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Inhibition Index

Event-related potentials of performance monitoring, including N2 (conflict monitoring), error-related negativity and error positivity (ERN and Pe; error monitoring), and P3 (inhibition) have been studied. However, conflict monitoring lacks a behavioural measure, and the functional significance of ERN, Pe, and P3 are debated. To address these issues, a behavioural measure of conflict monitoring was tested by subtracting the reaction time (RT) of a simple from a choice RT task to isolate conflict monitoring; the functions of error monitoring and inhibition were examined. The RT difference correlated with the N2 area (longer conflict monitoring related to a larger N2). ERN and Pe areas were negatively and positively correlated with errors, respectively. P3 magnitude and onset were correlated with an inhibition index. The new behavioural measure provides an accessible way to study conflict monitoring. Theories of conflict monitoring for ERN, error awareness for Pe, and inhibition for P3 were replicated and extended.

scholarly journals Error-Related Activity in Striatal Local Field Potentials and Medial Frontal Cortex: Evidence From Patients With Severe Opioid Abuse Disorder

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Sildatke ◽  
Thomas Schüller ◽  
Theo O. J. Gründler ◽  
Markus Ullsperger ◽  
Veerle Visser-Vandewalle ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Local Field ◽  
Performance Monitoring ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Local Field Potentials ◽  
Opioid Abuse ◽  
Error Processing ◽  
Field Potentials ◽  
Error Awareness ◽  
Error Related Negativity ◽  
Behavioral Adaptations

For successful goal-directed behavior, a performance monitoring system is essential. It detects behavioral errors and initiates behavioral adaptations to improve performance. Two electrophysiological potentials are known to follow errors in reaction time tasks: the error-related negativity (ERN), which is linked to error processing, and the error positivity (Pe), which is associated with subjective error awareness. Furthermore, the correct-related negativity (CRN) is linked to uncertainty about the response outcome. Here we attempted to identify the involvement of the nucleus accumbens (NAc) in the aforementioned performance monitoring processes. To this end, we simultaneously recorded cortical activity (EEG) and local field potentials (LFP) during a flanker task performed by four patients with severe opioid abuse disorder who underwent electrode implantation in the NAc for deep brain stimulation. We observed significant accuracy-related modulations in the LFPs at the time of the ERN/CRN in two patients and at the time of Pe in three patients. These modulations correlated with the ERN in 2/8, with CRN in 5/8 and with Pe in 6/8, recorded channels, respectively. Our results demonstrate the functional interrelation of striatal and cortical processes in performance monitoring specifically related to error processing and subjective error awareness.

Nuclear Power Plant Thermal Performance Improvement

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greg C. Alder ◽  
Frank J. Todd
Keyword(s):  
Power Plant ◽  
Nuclear Power Plant ◽  
Performance Improvement ◽  
Thermal Performance ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Performance Monitoring ◽  
Power Plant Equipment ◽  
Plant Personnel ◽  
Plant Equipment

With the combination of increased demand for electric power and advancing age of operating equipment in nuclear power plants, is more important than ever to monitor the condition of plant operation. There are many factors to monitor in nuclear power plant equipment condition. However, one that is frequently overlooked is thermal performance. Often this is an area where plant personnel can find “low hanging fruit” with great return on investment. Often thermal performance analysis can discover better methods to maintain critical plant equipment resulting in more efficient outage activities. Plants also benefit from increasing their operators’ awareness of the importance of thermal performance monitoring to find lost power generation. This paper will discuss proven methods to track, trend, and prioritize thermal performance issues in order to reduce the time from the occurrence of a loss to recovery.

scholarly journals The Impact of Performance Goals on Cheating Depends on How Performance Is Evaluated

AERA Open ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 233285841989427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Daumiller ◽  
Stefan Janke
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Design ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
Performance Goals ◽  
Performance Tests ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Academic Cheating ◽  
Evaluation Standards ◽  
Evaluation Standard ◽  
New Knowledge ◽  
The Impact

We investigated how evaluation standards employed in performance tests affect the impact of performance goals (here focused on appearance) on academic cheating. Thereby, we assumed that appearance goals would lead to increased cheating only if students’ performance was presumably evaluated based on results rather than on the strategies they applied to solve questions. A total of 169 university students (68.6% female) participated in an experimental design with 2 (induced appearance goals vs. no goal induction) × 2 (process-based vs. result-based evaluation standards) between-subject conditions. We assessed cheating using a confederate student observing the participants’ behaviors and by measuring whether participants reported that they solved unsolvable questions. Confirming our hypotheses, we found that students were more likely to cheat only when appearance goals were induced and the evaluation standard focused on the results. This new knowledge helps explain the mixed findings regarding how performance goals affect cheating and provides opportunities to reduce cheating in high-stakes testing situations.

scholarly journals Highlighting considerations in experimental design: the case of multimeters

2021 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 015018
Author(s):  
Smadar Levy ◽  
Adi Noga ◽  
Zehorit Kapach ◽  
Edit Yerushalmi
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Design ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Professional Associations ◽  
Experimental Results ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
National Network ◽  
Accuracy Of Measurements ◽  
Experimental Process ◽  
Measuring Scale ◽  
Key Aspects

Abstract The instructional lab setting has been found to be dominated by prescribed tasks and pre-prepared lab kits. This was explained by teachers’ need to guide students to simultaneously progress through a lab curriculum, which prompts them to standardize the lab experience. Nevertheless, prominent professional associations have persistently called to better represent experimental research practices in the lab, and to grant students more agency in the experimental process by orienting them towards more open-ended lab experiences. This paper reports a lab activity designed to advance students’ agency in the practice of experimental design, in a setting governed by a high-stakes national matriculation exam. Three hundred teachers of advanced level high-school physics experienced the lab activity in a national network of professional learning communities (PLCs). The activity was anchored in an experiment to determine the relationship between the current through a battery and its terminal voltage. It was designed to problematize students’ considerations underlying the choices of the location of the voltmeter and the measuring scale of the ammeter, and the possible implications for the validity of the experimental results; e.g. control of the variables, as well as the range and the accuracy of measurements. Teachers first performed the lab activity as learners, discussed it in the PLC meeting, and finally reflected on their experience. Individual responses to the lab worksheets and the reflections were analyzed. Initially, teachers’ considerations did not portray key aspects related to the validity of the experimental results, such as how design choices related to the location of the voltmeter and the ammeter measuring scale impacted the accuracy and range of the measurements and the control of variables. The teachers were highly engaged in the peer discussion in the PLC and found the lab activity valuable in raising students’ awareness of important considerations in experimental design.

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