Expecting the unexpected: An N400 study of risky sentence processing in adolescents

Abstract

Teens often engage in risk taking. Avoiding risk may be aided by rapid access to cognitive models for danger. This study investigated whether these schemata are immature in adolescence. An N400 sentential priming paradigm compared risky, predictable, and incongruent sentence processing in adolescents and adults. Adults and teens processed predictable sentences similarly, as evidenced by equivalent N400 priming. However, in adults, more activation was required to access final words in a risky sentence than when the situation was predictable and benign. Conversely, teens showed little difference in N400s generated by risky or expected sentences. This suggests that risky scenario final words were unexpected for adults but not for adolescents because of age-related differences in world knowledge and risk-related schemata. This study may help to explain why teenagers engage in risky activities when there is little time for deliberative thought.

Maturation of mismatch negativity and P3a response across adolescence

“…Event-related potential (ERPs), which reflect the pattern of electric activity produced by brain cells in response to a sensory stimulus or event, is an efficient non-invasive tool to measure various brain functions. To date, ERPs have been used to investigate functional changes in the brain across adolscence in relation to "high-level" cognitive functions such as attention [5,6], working memory and language [7,8]. ERPs have also been used to look at changes in "low-level" cognitive functions such as the encoding of simple speech and non-speech sounds (sound detection and orientation) [9,10].…”

An Examination of Young Women's Use of Condoms in Casual Sex Situations: Implications for the Sexuality Education Curriculum.

“…Verbatim and gist-based risk analyses are developmental stages. Research clearly shows that as people move from childhood to adolescence and into adulthood they rely less and less on verbatim analysis and more on gistbased analysis (Grose-Fifer, Hoover, Zottoli, & Rodrigues, 2011;Reyna, et al, 2011;Rivers, et al, 2008). Grose-Fifer et al, (2011)…”

An Examination of Young Women's Use of Condoms in Casual Sex Situations: Implications for the Sexuality Education Curriculum.

“…Verbatim and gist-based risk analyses are developmental stages. Research clearly shows that as people move from childhood to adolescence and into adulthood they rely less and less on verbatim analysis and more on gistbased analysis (Grose-Fifer, Hoover, Zottoli, & Rodrigues, 2011;Reyna, et al, 2011;Rivers, et al, 2008). Grose-Fifer et al, (2011)…”