Psychometric Properties of the Neural Response to Rewards and Errors Across Mid‐ to Late‐Adolescence

ABSTRACT Event‐related potential (ERP) measures of reward‐ and error‐related brain activity have been used to elucidate neural mechanisms contributing to the development of psychopathology. Adolescence is a critical developmental period that is associated with changes in ERP reward‐ and error‐related brain activity. However, there is a paucity of within‐subject research examining whether the reliability of ERP measures is the same or changes across adolescence. Moreover, it is unclear whether the time‐frequency representation of reward‐ and error‐related brain activity demonstrates similar psychometric properties. The present study examined the psychometric properties of reward‐ and error‐related brain activity in five hundred and fifty 13.5‐ to 15.5‐year‐old ( M = 14.4, SD = 0.63) girls. Participants completed the doors and flanker tasks while electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded at two assessments: baseline and 3 years later. Reward‐ and error‐related brain activity were quantified using the time‐domain reward positivity (RewP) and error‐related negativity (ERN), respectively, as well as time‐frequency delta and theta activity. Results indicated that all measures demonstrated adequate split‐half reliability at each assessment and 3‐year test–retest reliability across assessments. The present study indicates that the psychometric properties of time‐domain and time‐frequency reward‐ and error‐related brain activity are largely consistent across adolescence, supporting their potential use as individual differences measures of risk for psychopathology.