Abstract
To investigate the processing of positive vs. negative feedback in children aged 4–5 years, we devised a prize-guessing game that is analogous to gambling tasks used to measure feedback-related brain responses in adult studies. Unlike adult studies, the feedback-related negativity (FRN) elicited by positive feedback was as large as that elicited by negative feedback, suggesting that the neural system underlying the FRN may not process feedback valence in early childhood. In addition, positive feedback, compared with negative feedback, evoked a larger P1 over the occipital scalp area and a larger positive slow wave (PSW) over the right central-parietal scalp area. We believe that the PSW is related to emotional arousal and the intensive focus on positive feedback that is present in the preschool and early school years has adaptive significance for both cognitive and emotional development during this period.
Highlights
Children’s ability to regulate their cognitive performance and emotional expressions undergoes dramatic improvements in the preschool and early school years
Our goal was to use a task analogous to those used to study feedback processing in adults to determine (a) whether the feedback-related event-related brain potentials (ERPs) effects seen in adults would be evident in children and (b) whether those effects would show a greater sensitivity to positive feedback than to negative feedback
The feedback-related negativity (FRN) peak latency we observed was around 370 ms after prize presentation. This latency is longer than the FRN typically evoked for adults (,270 ms) and older children (,300 ms at 8– 12 years of age), but it is generally consistent with latency shifts in ERP components for studies with younger children [21]
Summary
Children’s ability to regulate their cognitive performance and emotional expressions undergoes dramatic improvements in the preschool and early school years. Part of this change requires children to learn from external feedback, yet a challenge for parents and educators alike is the difficulty of guiding children’s learning through a focus on correcting children’s mistakes. We report a study of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) elicited by feedback processing in preschoolers. Our goal was to use a task analogous to those used to study feedback processing in adults to determine (a) whether the feedback-related ERP effects seen in adults would be evident in children and (b) whether those effects would show a greater sensitivity to positive feedback than to negative feedback
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