Effects of relevance and response frequency on P3b amplitudes: Review of findings and comparison of hypotheses about the process reflected by P3b

Abstract

Diverse psychological correlates have been ascribed to “P300,” the conspicuous P3b component of event-related potentials (ERPs) recorded in many laboratory tasks. Traditionally, hypotheses on P3b have conceived of this component being independent from implementing the response to the present stimulus. This has changed in the recent decade when P3b has been related to aspects of the decision process. The present review first focusses on effects of the classic variables stimulus frequency and relevance on P3b amplitude. It turns out that already these effects are related to response requirements because effects of stimulus frequency actually are effects of frequency of response-defined stimulus categories and effects of relevance may be defined as effects of graduating the response requirements. Then, constructs and hypotheses on psychological functions reflected by P3b are evaluated for their abilities in explaining those effects. The tested constructs are information, relevance, and capacity, and the hypotheses are priming, cognitive processing, memory storage, context updating, closure, response facilitation, decision, stimulus–response (S–R) link reactivation, and conscious representations. S–R link reactivation hypothesis performed best, closely followed by memory storage and closure hypotheses. To make further progress, more studies should conduct tests between competing hypotheses.