ERP

• strengths

  • because ERPs provide a continuous measure of processing in response to a stimulus, it makes it possible to determine how processing is affected by a specific experimental manipulation
  • ERP can measure the processing of stimuli even in the absence of a behavioural response. ERP recordings make it possible to monitor covertly the processing of a stimulus without requiring a person to respond to them
• limitations

  • because ERPs are small and difficult to pick out from other electrical activity in the brain, it requires a large number of trials to gain meaningful data. this places limitations on the types of question that ERP readings can answer
  • only sufficiently strong voltage changes generated across the scalp are recordable. important electrical activities occurring deep in the brain are not recorded, ERPs tend to be restricted to the neocortex