ERP - Event related potentials (related to EEG)

• • uses same/similar equipment to EEG
  • ERPs - what is left when extraneous brain activity is filtered out from an EEG
  • key difference is that a stimulus is presented to a participant and researcher looks for activity related to that stimulus
  • the stimulus is usually presented hundreds of times as it is difficult to isolate the activity
• • uses statistical averaging technique to isolate responses linked to specific sensory, cognitive and motor events this way average response is graphed
  • research has shown different forms of ERPs linked to cognitive processes - e.g attention and memory
• A03 Positive

  • ERPs can monitor the individuals processing of stimuli without a behavioural response
  • ERPs are successfully used to measure cognitive processes. This is part due to their excellent temporal resolution
• A03 Negative

  • Studies using ERPs have been criticised for lack of standaardisation in method
  • Its difficult to establish pure data needed for ERPs as its difficult to filter out all background noise from EEGs