Postersession 1
Poster #: 52
Topic: Error signals
Wednesday, Sep 9, 2015
17:00-18:30
1st floor

Can order change modulation of response to standard and deviant tones?

Daniel Mullens1, István Winkler2, Andrew Heathcote3, Lisa Whitson1, Alexander Provost1, & Juanita Todd1

1Psychology, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia
2Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences ot the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
3Faculty of Health, University of Tasmania, Australia
Juanita.Todd@newcastle.edu.au

Previous studies have demonstrated that the evoked response to a rare deviation in a train of regular sounds is susceptible to order effects such that the response is smaller if it was first heard as a regular repeating “standard”. This poster features data from two studies (n=24 and n=16) in which two tones (60 ms vs. 30 ms and 1000 Hz vs. 1200 Hz, respectively) switch roles as rare “deviant” and common “standard” within blocks of a sequence. In both studies separate sequences of sounds begin with one sound as first-deviant, then the other tone as first-deviant and finally a repeat of the first order. The response to both standard and deviant tones was significantly modulated by order (quadratic effects) such that the response to standards was less negative (more suppressed) and the response to deviants more negative for sounds when heard as first-deviant within the sequence. The enhanced modulation of tones encountered as first-deviant is discussed as possible facilitated learning as a function of initial potential information value.