Task-specific relationships between error-related ERPs and behavior: Flanker, Stroop, and Go/Nogo tasks

Performance monitoring has been widely studied during different forced-choice response tasks. Participants
typically show longer response times (RTs) and increased accuracy following errors, but there are inconsistencies
regarding the connection between error-related event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and behavior, such as RT
and accuracy. The specific task in any given study could contribute to these inconsistencies, as different tasks
may require distinct cognitive processes that impact ERP-behavior relationships. The present study sought to
determine whether task moderates ERP-behavior relationships and whether these relationships are robustly
observed when tasks and stimuli are treated as random effects. ERPs and behavioral indices (RTs and accuracy)
recorded during flanker, Stroop, and Go/Nogo tasks from 180 people demonstrated a task-specific effect on ERP-behavior relationships, such that larger previous-trial error-related negativity (ERN) predicted longer RTs and
greater likelihood of a correct response on subsequent trials during flanker and Stroop tasks but not during Go/
Nogo task. Additionally, larger previous-trial error positivity (Pe) predicted faster RTs and smaller variances of
RTs on subsequent trials for Stroop and Go/Nogo tasks but not for flanker task. When tasks and stimuli were
treated as random effects, ERP-behavior relationships were not observed. These findings support the need to
consider the task used for recording performance monitoring measures when interpreting results across studies.