Kawamoto, T., & Hiraki, K. (2019). – 日本社会心理学会

Kawamoto, T. (川本大史), & Hiraki, K. (2019). 
Parental presence with encouragement alters feedback processing in preschoolers: An ERP study. 
親の応援が5歳児のフィードバック処理を変える：ERP研究 
Social Neuroscience, 14, 499-504.
doi: 10.1080/17470919.2018.1527250

External feedback plays an important role in adapting to the environment; however, feedback processing in preschoolers has not been fully understood. The present event-related brain potential (ERP) study sought to understand the influence of parental presence with encouragement on feedback processing by focusing on reward positivity (RewP: mean amplitude between 200–350 ms). Five-year-old children (N = 21) completed an animal search task both alone (the alone condition) and with a parent who offered words of encouragement (the with a parent condition). ERPs were recorded while they received negative and positive feedback. We found a larger RewP amplitude in response to positive feedback in the with a parent condition relative to in the alone condition. In addition, differences in RewP between positive and negative feedback were only observed in the with a parent condition. These findings suggest that everyday parental encouragement has the potential to promote differential positive and negative feedback processing possibly by enhancing the reward value of positive feedback.