Social exclusion affects working memory performance in young adolescent girls

Delia Fuhrmann; Caroline S. Casey; Maarten Speekenbrink; Sarah Jayne Blakemore

doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2019.100718

Social exclusion affects working memory performance in young adolescent girls

Delia Fuhrmann^*, Caroline S. Casey, Maarten Speekenbrink, Sarah Jayne Blakemore

^*Corresponding author for this work

Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

13 Citations (Scopus)

147 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Adolescence has been proposed to be a sensitive period of social development, during which the social environment has a heightened effect on brain and behaviour. As such, negative social experiences, such as social exclusion, may have particularly detrimental effects on psychological well-being. However, little is known about how social exclusion affects cognitive performance during this time of life. Here, we compared the effects of exclusion between adolescence and adulthood. We recruited 98 females in three age groups: young adolescents (N = 36, aged 10.1–14.0), mid-adolescents (N = 35, aged 14.3–17.9) and adults (N = 27, aged 18.3–38.1). All age groups showed reductions in mood after exclusion, compared to inclusion, in a virtual ball-tossing game. Young adolescents also showed reduced verbal working memory accuracy following exclusion. There was no effect of exclusion on visuo-spatial working memory in any age group. These results suggest young adolescent girls’ verbal working memory accuracy was affected by a short, virtual social exclusion experience. This highlights the importance of the social environment in adolescence and underlines the need to consider age differences in response to exclusion in the design and timing of social exclusion interventions in schools.

Original language	English
Article number	100718
Journal	Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
Volume	40
Early online date	16 Oct 2019
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2019.100718
Publication status	Published - Dec 2019

Keywords

Adolescence
Cyberball
Mood
n-back
Sensitive period
Visuo-spatial working memory

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.dcn.2019.100718Licence: CC BY

Social exclusion affects working_FUHRMANN_Acc1Oct2019Epub16Oct2019_GOLD VoR(CC BY)Final published version, 710 KBLicence: CC BY

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title = "Social exclusion affects working memory performance in young adolescent girls",

abstract = "Adolescence has been proposed to be a sensitive period of social development, during which the social environment has a heightened effect on brain and behaviour. As such, negative social experiences, such as social exclusion, may have particularly detrimental effects on psychological well-being. However, little is known about how social exclusion affects cognitive performance during this time of life. Here, we compared the effects of exclusion between adolescence and adulthood. We recruited 98 females in three age groups: young adolescents (N = 36, aged 10.1–14.0), mid-adolescents (N = 35, aged 14.3–17.9) and adults (N = 27, aged 18.3–38.1). All age groups showed reductions in mood after exclusion, compared to inclusion, in a virtual ball-tossing game. Young adolescents also showed reduced verbal working memory accuracy following exclusion. There was no effect of exclusion on visuo-spatial working memory in any age group. These results suggest young adolescent girls{\textquoteright} verbal working memory accuracy was affected by a short, virtual social exclusion experience. This highlights the importance of the social environment in adolescence and underlines the need to consider age differences in response to exclusion in the design and timing of social exclusion interventions in schools.",

keywords = "Adolescence, Cyberball, Mood, n-back, Sensitive period, Visuo-spatial working memory",

author = "Delia Fuhrmann and Casey, {Caroline S.} and Maarten Speekenbrink and Blakemore, {Sarah Jayne}",

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AU - Blakemore, Sarah Jayne

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AB - Adolescence has been proposed to be a sensitive period of social development, during which the social environment has a heightened effect on brain and behaviour. As such, negative social experiences, such as social exclusion, may have particularly detrimental effects on psychological well-being. However, little is known about how social exclusion affects cognitive performance during this time of life. Here, we compared the effects of exclusion between adolescence and adulthood. We recruited 98 females in three age groups: young adolescents (N = 36, aged 10.1–14.0), mid-adolescents (N = 35, aged 14.3–17.9) and adults (N = 27, aged 18.3–38.1). All age groups showed reductions in mood after exclusion, compared to inclusion, in a virtual ball-tossing game. Young adolescents also showed reduced verbal working memory accuracy following exclusion. There was no effect of exclusion on visuo-spatial working memory in any age group. These results suggest young adolescent girls’ verbal working memory accuracy was affected by a short, virtual social exclusion experience. This highlights the importance of the social environment in adolescence and underlines the need to consider age differences in response to exclusion in the design and timing of social exclusion interventions in schools.

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Social exclusion affects working memory performance in young adolescent girls

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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