Age‐related differences in the error‐related negativity and error positivity in children and adolescents are moderated by sample and methodological characteristics: A meta‐analysis

Abstract

The error‐related negativity (ERN) and the error positivity (Pe) are electrophysiological components associated with error processing that are thought to exhibit distinctive developmental trajectories from childhood to adulthood. To investigate the age and age moderation effects on the ERN and the Pe strength during development, we conducted a preregistered three‐level meta‐analysis synthesizing 120 and 41 effect sizes across 18 group comparison studies and 19 correlational studies, respectively. The meta‐analysis included studies with mean age between 3.6 and 28.7 (min‐max age range: 3.5 and 49.8) years for age‐group comparisons and 6.1 to 18.7 (min‐max age range: 4.0–35.7) years for age correlations. Results showed that age was associated with a more negative ERN (SMD = −.433, r = −.230). No statistically significant association between age and the Pe was found (SMD = .059, r = −.091), except for in a group comparison between younger and older adolescents. The age effects were not significantly moderated by whether a Flanker or a Go/No‐Go task was used, whereas a probabilistic learning task moderated the age effect on the Pe. Moreover, the Fz and Cz electrode sites yielded stronger negative associations between age and the ERN and the Pe, respectively. The results confirm that the ERN and the Pe show differential development courses and suggest that sample and methodological characteristics influence the age effects, and lay the foundation for investigations of developmental patterns of the ERN and the Pe in relation to psychopathology and early genetic and environmental risk factors.

A Guide for Calculating Study-Level Statistical Power for Meta-Analyses

“…6). This approach can also be used when presenting results from multiple novel meta-analyses in the same article, as demonstrated by Boen and colleagues (2022).…”

EEG Dynamics of Error Processing and Associated Behavioral Adjustments in Preschool Children

“…Researchers generally use various tasks to study error processing (e.g., Flanker, Stroop, Simon, or go/no-go tasks) [ 6 , 7 , 8 ]. In these forced-choice tasks, an error happens when a person gives a response that does not match the response that should be associated with the present stimulus.…”

“…In this sense, preschool children make behavioral adjustments and show neural responses following an error. For example, 3-year-old children have longer reaction times (RTs) following erroneous responses than correct ones [ 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 ], and they present neural responses to errors as increased ERN amplitude [ 6 ] and frontal theta power [ 39 , 40 , 41 ]. However, there is a lack of evidence regarding how neural responses to error (i.e., ERN and frontal theta) predict subsequent behavioral adjustments (i.e., PES and PEA) during childhood.…”

Event‐related potentials data quality in young children: Standardized measurement error of ERN and Pe

“…In line with this idea, in developmental investigations the amplitude of the Pe has been linked to academic achievement and motivational processes in young children (Kim et al., 2016, 2017). A recent meta‐analysis found no age effects on Pe, except for when the ERPs of younger relative to older adolescents were compared, and no moderation of the age effects by sex (Boen et al., 2021).…”