Exploring post-error slowing in children aged 8–11: task-specific patterns and associations with cognitive and academic outcomes

Post-error slowing (PES) is considered an index of cognitive control and performance monitoring, yet its consistency across tasks and its relation to academic outcomes in children remain unclear. This study examined PES in 8-to 11-year-old children using modified versions of three executive function tasks: Flanker, Go/No-Go, and N-back. We asked (1) whether children show significant PES in these tasks, (2) whether PES correlates across task blocks, (3) whether PES correlates across tasks, (4) whether PES is influenced by task demands and difficulty, and (5) whether PES associates with the overall mathematical grade, the overall Italian language grade and intelligence. Results revealed that (1) children showed significant post-error slowing in all tasks, (2) PES correlated positively between some task blocks in N-back and Go/No-Go, (3) PES did not correlate across tasks, (4) PES differed by different task demands and difficulty, (5) only PES in the Flanker task correlated significantly with intelligence and marginally with language achievement, both positively. Overall, PES appears as a task-specific phenomenon in children, with limited links to cognitive and academic outcomes.