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Updated: May 28, 2026

Measuring Statistical Learning Across Modalities and Domains in School-Aged Children Via an Online Platform and Neuroimaging Techniques
Published on: June 30, 2020
Similar brain mechanism of hypothesis-testing between children and adults
Fuhong Li1, Bihua Cao, Xueli Cai
1Department of Psychology, Southwest University, Beibei, China. fuhongli@swu.edu.cn
Abstract:
Fourteen children and 15 adults were sequentially presented with triplets of cookies and were asked to learn what kinds of cookies were eatable while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. The results locked to the third cookies that served to strengthen or reject a preliminary hypothesis showed that (1) the parietal P220 and frontal HRP (Hypothesis Reject Potential) was larger in reject condition than in strengthen condition for both age groups; (2) the intensive process of hypothesis testing activated most of the left brain. These results suggest that the logical function of the frontal lobe has been formed during the critical period of development of thinking.
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