This research investigated the effect of foreperiod predictability in the Attentional Blink (AB). The AB, a cost in processing the second of two targets presented in close temporal proximity, was estimated using a minimalist procedure consisting of two letter targets and two letter fragment masks. In a four-step procedure, differences in foreperiod duration, target exposure duration, and inter-target interval were controlled in order to estimate the AB. Foreperiod was manipulated in three experiments. The AB effect was reduced when a single and relatively long foreperiod value was used (M=880 ms, Experiment 2) in comparison to randomized (250-750 ms, Experiment 1) and single but relatively short foreperiods (M=273 ms, Experiment 3). The results are discussed in the context of resource-sharing and preparation of a perceptual-set pertaining to physical target features including modality and intensity, as well as spatial and temporal predictability. It is concluded that foreperiods that are too brief for an individual observer or temporally unpredictable contribute to the AB.

Background. Previous work has demonstrated that a commercial gaming electroencephalography (EEG) system, Emotiv EPOC, can be adjusted to provide valid auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) in adults that are comparable to ERPs recorded by a research-grade EEG system, Neuroscan. The aim of the current study was to determine if the same was true for children. Method. An adapted Emotive EPOC system and Neuroscan system were used to make simultaneous EEG recordings in nineteen 6- to 12-year-old children under “passive” and “active” listening conditions. In the passive condition, children were instructed to watch a silent DVD and ignore 566 standard (1000 Hz) and 100 deviant (1200 Hz) tones. In the active condition, they listened to the same stimuli, and were asked to count the number of ‘high’ (i.e. deviant) tones. Results. Intraclass correlations (ICCs) indicated that the ERP morphology recorded with the two systems was very similar for the P1, N1, P2, P2, and P3 ERP peaks (r = .78 to .95) in both passive and active conditions, but was poor for the mismatch negativity ERP component (MMN; r < .30). There were few differences between peak amplitude and latency estimates for the two systems. Conclusions. An adapted EPOC EEG system can be used to index children’s late auditory ERP peaks (i.e. P1, N1, P2, N2, P3) but not their MMN ERP component. Subjects: Psychiatry and Psychology Keywords: EEG, ERP, Emotiv EPOC, Validation, Mismatchnegativity, MMN, Intraclass correlation, Methods, Signal processing, Auditory odd-ball, Children

Keywords N400, EEG, language comprehension, sensitivity, Emotiv EPOC+, multivariate pattern analyses Highlights -New methods show hints that brain data can be used to infer language processing -A gaming headset records EEG waveforms comparable to a research grade system -50% of individual children show significant N400 effects in two paradigms -We can decode semantic context in up to 88% of children using multivariate analyses Abstract:Can we use electrophysiological data to assess language processing? Although we usually cannot infer cognition from brain data, there are some circumstances in which discriminative brain signals are enough to tell us that cognitive processing has occurred. For example, if we observe differential neural responses to identical stimuli that vary only in cognitive context, we can infer an influence of context on stimulus processing. Here, we used this logic to develop a test for receptive language ability in individual children. We were motivated by the suggestion that some non-verbal individuals, such as a subset of autistic children, may understand more language than they can demonstrate; for these people a neural test would be transformative. We developed two child-friendly paradigms in which typically developing children listened to identical spoken words in congruent and incongruent lexicalsemantic contexts. In the congruent condition, the target word was strongly predicted by the context, while in the incongruent condition, the target word violated lexical-semantic predictions. In both paradigms, we simultaneously measured EEG with a research-grade system, Neuroscan's SynAmps2, and an adapted gaming system, Emotiv's EPOC+. In both paradigms, at a group level, we found a statistically significant N400 effect to lexical-semantic violations, and we also detected significant effects in about half of our participants individually.The same effects were present, although with a numerically smaller amplitude, with EPOC+.Using multivariate analyses on individual children's EEG data increased our sensitivity to detect evidence of lexical-semantic processing, reaching an 88% detection rate in a paradigm using sentences. This provides a promising avenue to assess language comprehension in individuals, which could be used to identify language comprehension abilities in children who may otherwise struggle to demonstrate how much they understand.