Tonic and phasic activation and arousal effects as a function of feedback in repetitive-choice reaction time tasks.

This study examines the effects of positive and negative feedback on performance during choice reaction time tasks to assess whether they differentially affect phasic arousal and tonic activation. Participants (N = 96) received either no feedback or signals of reward, punishment, or both during a semantic and a visuospatial repetitive-choice reaction time task. The number of errors made was analyzed both on a trial-by-trial basis and over a...