Performance Monitoring in Mathematics Learning and Assessment: Error Prediction, Feedback, and the Emotional Burden of Error

We learn from our mistakes, often through external feedback. However, there is little research into the intertwining of a student's neural error‐monitoring and their monitoring of external feedback ( feedback‐monitoring ), or how error feedback received from external sources is experienced emotionally. This study, conducted in the natural setting of the student's school, investigated the neural temporal dynamics of error‐monitoring (ERN, Pe) and feedback‐monitoring (FRN, P3b, LPP) in 23 15‐year‐old students engaging with computer‐based mathematics tasks that provided real‐time feedback. Additionally, the study examined the relationship between these neural processes and mathematics performance, and the emotions induced by error feedback. The findings tentatively suggest the brain's predictive processes in error‐monitoring (ERN) are crucial in enabling feedback messages to undergo extended neural processing (P3b, LPP), while a larger P3b amplitude following error feedback correlates with superior mathematics performance, and sustained neural processing of error feedback correlates with reduced emotional burden of error (EBE).