ABSTRACT
There is great interest by researchers, clinicians, educators, and parents in understanding brain functioning and cognitive skill development. This interest has been heightened by the development of methodologies for measuring brain responses that have revealed differences between typically developing and at-risk or disabled children. Some useful and relatively new techniques for studying the cognitive skills include event-related potentials (ERPs) that use scalp electrodes to detect electrical activity generated by neurons in the brain. These brain responses, in turn, can be related to behavioral measures to look for reliable commonalities useful for understanding how brain mechanisms correspond to behavior. The purpose of this chapter is to review the use of ERP techniques in research to better understand how brain–based responses can be systematically related to developmental changes in specific cognitive skills. From this review it should be clear that the ERP technique provides insights into brain–behavior development that complements and supplements information obtained through more traditional behavioral measures.
