归因任务中预期强度水平对结果评价的影响

Previous researches has shown that two components of the event- related brain potential, the feedback negativity (FRN) and P300, are related to outcome evaluation. So far, the nature of the outcome evaluation reflected by FRN and the significance of P300 remains unknown. Some studies found that the process of outcome evaluation may be related to the expectation, and the FRN may be affected by the intensity levels of the expectation for the outcome. To address these issues, the present study will start on two aspects: (1)This study required 39 participants to make attribution about their performance during a task, the aim was to assess the levels of the expectations for the outcome under four conditions in the attribution task. The main finding is that, the expectations for monetary reward under four conditions are scaled. (2)Based on the results of the first study, this study also required 16 participants to make attribution about their performance during a task. A functional dissociation was observed, with the FRN affected by the intensity levels of the expectation for the outcome, while the P300 sensitive to the degree of emotion the participants experienced. Dipole source location analysis showed that the most likely neural generator of FRN and P300 is the cingulate cortex, suggesting that FRN might reflect cognitive conflict when the actual outcome is different from the expectation, and P300 is related to the emotion processing of outcome stimuli. These results suggest that there is a functional dissociation between FRN and P300.