ERPs

• ERPs - event related potentials
• Presenting a person with a specific stimulus then measuring small voltage changes in the brain that are triggered by the specific stimulus
• Is made consistent through repetition
• Waves of sensory ERP’s - first 100 milliseconds reflects the way in which the subjects evaluates the stimulus (cognitive processing)
• Strength - due to continuous nature of the processing, it is possible to identify how manipulation of a stimulus impacts processing
• Strength - These readings can take place in a covert way to avoid predictability / pre-planning
• Weakness - large number of trials required to gather meaningful data
• Weakness - threshold of electrical activity picked up, nothing less - ignoring internal neural activity and only detecting charge in cortex