Your mistake is my mistake . . . or is it? Behavioural adjustments following own and observed actions in cooperative and competitive contexts

Abstract

A social speeded choice-reaction-time task was used to study adaptive behaviours following own and observed actions (errors and correct responses) in cooperative and competitive contexts. After making an erroneous response, the appropriate remedial action to avoid future errors in speeded reaction tasks is to slow down. Consistent with previous results, people indeed slow down following their own errors. Importantly, people who slow down most following own errors also slow down following observed errors in a cooperative situation. In a competitive context, a different pattern was found. People accelerated after errors from their opponent. The current findings demonstrate that the social context determines the way people respond to the errors of others, indicating that the neural systems that control remedial actions are highly flexible. These systems may underlie social adaptive behaviour, enabling people to respond flexibly to other people's actions in a wide variety of social contexts.

Keywords:

• Error monitoring
• Adaptive behaviour
• Social cognition
• Performance adjustments
• Cooperation
• Competition

Acknowledgments

E.D.B. was supported by a VENI grant (451–07–022) from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and by the EU project “Joint Action Science and Technology” (IST–FP6–003747). R.B.M. was supported by a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship within the 6th European Community Framework Programme and the Medical Research Council UK. The authors would like to thank Yvonne Maas for her assistance in data collection. The gestation of this manuscript is commemorated by the designation of the star Ursa Major RA 11 h 40 m 54 s D 52° 19′ as “Mars' OB-ERN 2b” at the International Star Registry by M.G.H.C.