Revisiting Defensive Motivation and the Error-Related Negativity: A Multi-Site Replication Study

A large number of EEG studies have identified a distinct event related potential (ERP) component during error processing known as the Error-Related Negativity (ERN). In an influential study, Hajcak and Foti (2008) explored the idea that errors could trigger defensive motivational reactions and that the ERN might forecast the intensity of defensive reactions following errors. Using a flanker task, thirty-one college-aged participants responded to the direction of a central arrow with acoustic startle probes administered pseudo-randomly throughout. Hajcak and Foti’s (2008) findings indicated the ERN is indicative of individual variations in aversive reactions to errors. This has influenced understanding of the ERN being more than a simple error detection mechanism and sheds light on how people differ in their emotional responses to mistakes. As part of the #EEGManyLabs project, an international network of laboratories, we will test the replicability of the results from this influential study. The data will later be combined to compute global effect sizes of the ERN, startle potentiation, and their interaction. Collectively, these replications will help solidify the results from this highly-cited study. Given that the ERN is an integral part of a broader neural system responding to potentially threatening stimuli, this replication will provide a more solid foundation for our understanding of error processing and its relationship to defensive reactivity.