Blame everyone: Error-related devaluation in Eriksen flanker task

- We studied the affective consequences of response accuracy in the Eriksen flanker task.
- Both target and distractor faces were disliked when they were associated with errors.
- Errors on compatible trials but not on incompatible trials affected preferences.
- When responses were correct, compatibility did not affect preferences.
- Attention is not likely to have a strong effect on error-related devaluation.

Preferences are determined not only by stimuli themselves but also by the way they are processed in the brain. The efficacy of cognitive processing during previous interactions with stimuli is particularly important. When observers make errors in simple tasks such as visual search, recognition, or categorization, they later dislike the stimuli associated with errors. Here we test whether this error-related devaluation exists in Erisken flanker task and whether it depends on the distribution of attention. We found that both attended stimuli (targets) and ignored ones (distractors) are devaluated after errors on compatible trials but not incompatible ones. The extent of devaluation is similar for targets and distractors, indicating that distribution of attention does not significantly influence the attribution of error-related negative affect. We discuss this finding in light of the possible mechanisms of error-related devaluation.