Class: Psych 2301 MWF 9:00am
Article Reviewed: ERN and the Placebo: A Misattribution Approach to Studying he Arousal Properties of the Error- Related Negativity
Year of Article: 2012
Authors: Inzlicht, Michael, Al-Khindi, Timour
Journal: Journal of Experimental Psychology
Journal Page Numbers: 799 – 805 (7 pages)
Textbook citation: R-22
Type of Study: Experimental
Background, Problem and Hypothesis
The following study was aimed to determine if performance monitoring was a result of only the cognitive process or if other factors were involved as well. For example, professions like surgeons and air traffic controllers require extremely low tolerance for any error, how can humans continuously maintain that level of …show more content…
The participants were told they were testing the effects of a new herbal supplements on cognitive performance. The participants were assigned to one of the two categories. Participants in the misattribution category were told the supplement had some side effects such as tenseness, anxiety, and increased heart rate. The second, control category was told the supplement had no side effects of any kind. In this experiment the independent variable being the categories, and the dependent variable being the results from the participants. The participants were then given a green colored drink to ingest. Immediately after, they were given the Spielberger 20 item, 4-point Likert State Anxiety Inventory. After that they were given a go or no-go test, in which they were to press a button when a go item would occur or to refrain from pressing a button if no-go item would occur. Participants were given time to process a practice test, and then were given two actual test from which results were gathered. Once completing the go or no-go test participants were given the State Anxiety Inventory once again to test the difference between our manipulation and the a normal state of stress and …show more content…
Through this experiment what authors found was that cognitive models to show ERN still very much prevail. This study made result that through misattribution and manipulation the ERN was dampened and did so by not changing any cognitive performance. On a related note the authors gathered enough evidence that the ERN might have emotion like properties. The amplitude of the ERN was noted to decrease when negative effect was present. As in the pilot study the amount of stress during the go/no-go test was mild, but had reduced as per the second State Anxiety Inventory Test with no manipulation involved as it was in the first timed