Journal article
Conducting Event-Related Potential (ERP) Research With Young Children: A Review of Components, Special Considerations, and Recommendations for Research on Cognition and Emotion
Journal of psychophysiology, Vol.34(3), pp.137-158
2020
DOI: 10.1027/0269-8803/a000243
PMCID: PMC8136588
PMID: 34024985
Abstract
There has been an unprecedented increase in the number of research studies employing event-related potential (ERP) techniques to examine dynamic and rapidly occurring neural processes with children during the preschool and early childhood years. Despite this, there has been relatively little discussion of the methodological and procedural differences that exist for studies of young children versus older children and adults. That is, reviewers, editors, and consumers of this work often expect developmental studies to simply apply adult techniques and procedures to younger samples. Procedurally, this creates unrealistic expectations for research paradigms, data collection, and data reduction and analyses. Scientifically, this leads to inappropriate measures and methods that hinder drawing conclusions and advancing theory. Based on ERP work with preschoolers and young children from 10 laboratories across North America, we present a summary of the most common ERP components under study in the area of emotion and cognition in young children along with 13 realistic expectations for data collection and loss, laboratory procedures and paradigms, data processing, ERP averaging, and typical challenges for conducting this type of work. This work is intended to supplement previous guidelines for work with adults and offer insights to aid researchers, reviewers, and editors in the design and evaluation of developmental research using ERPs. Here we make recommendations for researchers who plan to conduct or who are conducting ERP studies in children between ages 2 and 12 years, focusing on studies of toddlers and preschoolers. Recommendations are based on both data and our cumulative experience and include guidelines for laboratory setup, equipment and recording settings, task design, and data processing.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Conducting Event-Related Potential (ERP) Research With Young Children: A Review of Components, Special Considerations, and Recommendations for Research on Cognition and Emotion
- Creators
- Rebecca J Brooker - Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USAJohn E Bates - Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USAKristin A Buss - Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USAMara J Canen - Department of Psychology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USATracy A Dennis-Tiwary - Department of Psychology, Hunter College of the City University of New York, NY, USALisa M Gatzke-Kopp - Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USACaroline Hoyniak - Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USADaniel N Klein - Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USAAutumn Kujawa - Department of Psychological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USAAyelet Lahat - Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, CanadaConnie Lamm - Department of Psychological Science, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USAJason S Moser - Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USAIsaac T Petersen - Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USAAlva Tang - Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, CanadaSteven Woltering - Department of Educational Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USALouis A Schmidt - Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of psychophysiology, Vol.34(3), pp.137-158
- Publisher
- Hogrefe Publishing
- DOI
- 10.1027/0269-8803/a000243
- PMID
- 34024985
- PMCID
- PMC8136588
- ISSN
- 0269-8803
- eISSN
- 2151-2124
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 2020
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute; Center for Social Science Innovation
- Record Identifier
- 9984070509102771
Metrics
35 Record Views