The Prominence of Self-referential Processing across ERP and Memory Consolidation in Children

ABSTRACT

We examined behavioral and electrophysiological indices of self-referential and valence processing during a Self-Referential Encoding Task in 9- to 12-year-old children, followed by surprise memory tasks for self- and other-referential trait adjectives. Participants endorsed more positive than negative self-referential information but equally endorsed positive and negative information about the other character. Children demonstrated enhanced parietal LPP amplitudes in response to self- compared to other-referential trait adjectives. Positive and negative information was differentially remembered depending on the order of the referent cues presented, suggesting that social information undergoes differential consolidation processes depending on the referent and the order of presentation.

Notes on contribution

Anna Hudson ([email protected]), Emma S. Green ([email protected]), and McLennon J.G. Wilson ([email protected]) are PhD candidates in the department of Psychology at the University of Waterloo. AH served as the lead researcher and writer of the manuscript. EG assisted as a secondary researcher in data collection, and both EG and MW provided edits and assisted with the behavioral data analysis. Dr. Roxane Itier ([email protected]) provided technology and lab space use as well as assisted with ERP data analysis and manuscript writing. Dr. Heather Henderson ([email protected]) provided lab space and was involved in manuscript preparation and writing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Two participants correctly rejected all Positive distractors, two correctly rejected all Negative distractors, and two correctly rejected all distractors (Positive and Negative).

2. One participant incorrectly rejected all Self-Positive trait adjectives while another incorrectly rejected all Self-Negative adjectives.

3. One participant correctly recalled all Self-Positive trait adjectives while another correctly recalled all Self-Negative adjectives.

4. It was identified that endorsement data for self-negative data, and recall for self-negative and other-positive, were all positively skewed (skewness statistic > 1.0). These variables were log-transformed, and analyses were re-run on this new data. Endorsement results demonstrated that the main effects of referent, F(1,61) = 43.61, MSE = .031, p < .001, η_p² = .417, became significant, and the main effect of Valence, and the Referent by Valence interaction remained significant. All main effects, interactions, and order effects remained unchanged within the recall data.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Canada Research Chair program [230407]; the Canadian Foundation for Innovation [213322,36010]; Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada [418431]; Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [435-2016-0494].