Failure induces task-irrelevant exploration during a stencil task

Abstract

During reward-based motor tasks, performance failure leads to an increase in movement variability along task-relevant dimensions. These increases in movement variability are indicative of exploratory behaviour in search of a better, more successful motor action. It is unclear whether failure also induces exploration along task-irrelevant dimensions that do not influence performance. In this study, we ask whether participants would explore the task-irrelevant dimension while they performed a stencil task. With a stylus, participants applied downward, normal force that influenced whether they received reward (task-relevant) as they simultaneously made erasing-like movement patterns along the tablet that did not influence performance (task-irrelevant). In this task, the movement pattern was analyzed as the distribution of movement directions within a movement. The results showed significant exploration of task-relevant force and task-irrelevant movement patterns. We conclude that failure can induce additional movement variability along a task-irrelevant dimension.