title: Socio-emotionally significant experience and children's processing of irrelevant auditory stimuli.
abstract: Theory and research indicate considerable influence of socio-emotionally significant experiences on children's functioning and adaptation. In the current study, we examined neurophysiological correlates of children's allocation of information processing resources to socio-emotionally significant events, specifically, simulated marital interactions. We presented 9- to 11-year-old children (n=24; 11 females) with 15 videos of interactions between two actors posing as a married couple. Task-irrelevant brief auditory probes were presented during the videos, and event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited to the auditory probes were measured. As hypothesized, exposure to higher levels of interparental conflict was associated with smaller P1, P2, and N2 ERPs to the probes. This finding is consistent with the idea that children who had been exposed to more interparental conflict attended more to the videos and diverted fewer cognitive resources to processing the probes, thereby producing smaller ERPs to the probes. In addition, smaller N2s were associated with more child behavior problems, suggesting that allocating fewer processing resources to the probes was associated with more problem behavior. Results are discussed in terms of implications of socio-emotionally significant experiences for children's processing of interpersonal interactions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Science, 2 Colchester Avenue, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405-0134, United States. Electronic address: ascherme@uvm.edu.
authors.forename: Alice C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Schermerhorn
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, 1101 E. 10th St., Bloomington, IN 47405, United States.
authors.forename: John E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Bates
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, 1101 E. 10th St., Bloomington, IN 47405, United States.
authors.forename: Aina
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Puce
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior, C88, East Stadium, P.O Box 880156, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588-0156, United States.
authors.forename: Dennis L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Molfese
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D004569:Electroencephalography; D000066498:Emotional Adjustment / Q000502:physiology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology; D005195:Family Relations / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Adjustment problems; Children; Event-related potential (ERP); Probe ERP paradigm; Socio-emotionally significant experiences