Control mechanisms after expectation violation: An ERP study in expectation-based search.

Abstract

In everyday life, people perform expectation-based searches for targets, such as searching the products based on color-flavor associations. Nevertheless, we often encounter situations where expectations are violated that impact search efficiency for subsequent targets, known as an inter-trial effect. However, the underlying mechanisms of expectation updating after being violated remained unclear. The present study aimed to explore how the experience of searching for expectation-incongruent targets affects trial-by-trial visual search through expectancy updating and cognitive control processing. Here, we analyzed event-related potentials (ERPs) related to behavioral results during the search tasks. The results revealed distinct cognitive control mechanisms under similar behavioral results in the context of different type of associations. Expectation violations in long-term associations facilitated expectation updating through proactive control, whereas reactive cognitive exhibited a more prominent role in the short-term associations condition. These findings contributed to our understanding of how associative learning guide our behavior and provided further support for expectation violation and updating theory.