Some cognitive and neuropsychological aspects of social inhibition and facilitation

Tasks that, in the working memory and neuropsychological literature, have been related to executive and frontal processing, and nonexecutive and more posterior brain processing, bear distinct similarities with the kinds of tasks that, in the social psychological literature, have been associated with social inhibition and facilitation, respectively. Accordingly, a cognitive-neuropsychological model of social inhibition and facilitation is proposed whereby the presence of others engages the executive and frontal systems, and facilitates the function of systems active in more automatic, nonexecutive processing. In two experiments, the tasks most associated with executive and frontal processing (phonemic switches and answers to complex questions) showed evidence of social inhibition, whereas those more associated with nonexecutive and more posterior temporal processing (phonemic clusters and confidence–accuracy correlations), showed some evidence of social facilitation. Implications are discussed.     

Self-presentation and drive in social facilitation

Social facilitation refers to cases in which the presence of others increases the probability of certain responses on the part of an independently operating individual. Drive theory attributes these effects to an unconscious facilitation of dominant responses, as defined by Hull-Spence learning theory. Self-presentation explanations posit changes in motivation and cognitive strategies that result from an increased concern with favorable private and public images. The present paper reviews evidence and presents an experiment indicating both points of view are valid, but that neither perspective by itself can account for all relevant data.     

Distraction and social comparison as mediators of social facilitation effects

Sanders and Baron (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1975, 32, 956–963) suggested that increases in drive produced by the presence of others (social facilitation) are due to the tendency for others to distract task performers as they worked on a task. This Distraction-Conflict theory proposes that socially mediated drive induction will occur whenever there is some reason to shift attention from the task to the social stimuli. In the case of humans, one such reason may be the opportunity to obtain social comparison information from an audience or coactors. The present research demonstrated that social facilitation effects (improved simple task performance and impaired complex task performance produced by the presence of others) occurred only when subjects were motivated to obtain comparison information (Experiment I) and when comparison information was available (Experiment II). The availability of comparison information also led to increased accuracy in estimating the coactor's performance. This indicated that in conditions manifesting social facilitation, subjects were spending some time monitoring the coactor's work, which is an inherently distracting activity. Several supplementary measures of distraction were generally consistent in indicating greater distraction under conditions manifesting social facilitation. The present results offer no support for the explanations of social facilitation suggested by Zajonc and by Cottrell.     

Evaluation apprehension,hypothesis awareness,and the weapons effect

The present study was designed to extend Turner and Simons' (1974) investigation of possible experimental artifacts in aggression research. Employing a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design, 60 male subjects were given either a low or high evaluation apprehension treatment, and then were either exposed or not exposed to weapons in an otherwise close replication of the seven shock-unassociated weapons condition of Berkowitz and LePage (1967). Based on an objectively worded postexperimental questionnaire, subjects were classified as being aware or not aware that the procedures were designed to make them give more shock to their partners. The findings, which were consistent with the analysis of Berkowitz (1974) and Turner and Simons (1974), indicated that the weapons-no weapons comparison was significant only for non-apprehensive, nonaware subjects. The results were interpreted as suggesting that evaluation apprehension, hypothesis awareness, and sophistication in aggression experiments may produce inhibitions which can modify the effects of experimental manipulations.     

Evaluation apprehension and response withholding in solution of anagrams

Sixty male Ss who were classified as high or low scorers on the Sarason Test Anxiety Scale performed a difficult anagrams task either alone, before a passively observing experimenter or in the presence of an experimenter who both observed and evaluated the S's performance. Ss who were high in test anxiety attempted fewer anagrams and had fewer correct solutions in the Evaluated condition than in the Alone condition, but also had a higher proportion of correct solutions out of total attempts. Low test-anxiety Ss did not show variable performance across conditions for any measure. Follow-up studies showed that when Ss were encouraged to attempt partial solutions neither test anxiety nor experimental treatment influenced any of the measures of performance. State anxiety change scores from baseline to post-treatment assessment showed a generally negative correlation between anxiety and number of anagrams attempted. The results indicate that fear of failure engendered by test anxiety and experimenter evaluation caused Ss to withhold responding.     

Infantile handling and the facilitation of discrimination and reversal learning

One group of rats was removed from their home cage and received daily handling from Days 3-21, while the control group of litter mates remained in the cage and did not receive any treatment. On Day 22 all rats were weaned and they were housed in individual cages until they were 60 days old. After two pretraining days, subjects were given daily blocks of one free and three forced trials in the T-maze and were rewarded with food after making the correct response. Following 20 days of training and testing on black-white discrimination, subjects were given 10 days of reversal training with four daily trials. Results indicate that the handled animals showed faster running and a greater number of correct choices than the control rats during both the acquisition and reversal learning phases of the experiment.     

The self-attention-induced feedback loop and social facilitation

It has been proposed that self-directed attention leads to the engagement of a cybernetic feedback loop, by which discrepancies between present behavior and a standard of comparison are reduced. This analysis is applied to performance facilitation effects, which are more typically explained in terms of drive theories. Though these two approaches to motivation make similar behavioral predictions in this context, they assume different mediating states. Support is noted for the assumptions that mirror presence and audience presence induce self-focus, and that they lead to comparison with salient behavioral standards. Support for the assumption that these manipulations increase arousal is also reviewed, and is challenged on methodological grounds. The attentional analysis is used to derive predictions regarding changes in physiological state over the course of a typical social facilitation procedure. An experiment is reported which confirmed these predictions. Discussion centers on how to interpret physiological changes in terms that are compatible with control theory, how to account for social impairment phenomena in terms of the present model, and the conceptual relationship between mirror presence and audience presence as experimental manipulations.     

Explanations of social facilitation: A review

A review is made of the behavioral effects of the presence of a conspecific. A large number of behavior changes are discussed, in three groups. First, there are effects of the presence of others on the level of arousal or alertness; under predictable conditions the presence of a conspecific will increase arousal level. Second, there are effects on attentional processes. For a variety of reasons, conspecifics require attending. Third, the presence of others can induce a social valuation on particular behaviors, so that they become positively or negatively valued. For each of these three groups, a number of possible mechanisms are elaborated, and a number of mediating variables are discussed. Further, an attempt is made to link each of these behavioral effects to human and nonhuman social relations, to show how they function in social organization. Even the “minimal” social setting, one person with another, can have effects ranging from physiological changes to inducing the “presence” of the social power structures or social organization of a social group. Lastly, future directions for research in this area are suggested, and problems with the present research are examined. Foremost here is the use of implied audiences, mirrors, and real audiences, as manipulations of social conditions. It is argued that these will result in different effects, and some evidence for this is reviewed.     

Affective facilitation and inhibition of cultural influences on reasoning

Research in South Korea and the United States examined how affective states facilitate or inhibit culturally dominant styles of reasoning. According to the affect-as-information hypothesis, affective cues of mood influence judgements by serving as embodied information about the value of accessible inclinations and cognitions. Extending this line of research to culture, we hypothesised that positive affect should promote (and negative affect should inhibit) culturally normative reasoning. The results of two studies of causal reasoning supported this hypothesis. Positive and negative affect functioned like "go" and "stop" signals, respectively, for culturally typical reasoning styles. Thus, in happy (compared to sad) moods, Koreans engaged in more holistic reasoning, whereas Americans engaged in more analytic reasoning.     

Affective facilitation and inhibition of cultural influences on reasoning

Research in South Korea and the United States examined how affective states facilitate or inhibit culturally dominant styles of reasoning. According to the affect-as-information hypothesis, affective cues of mood influence judgements by serving as embodied information about the value of accessible inclinations and cognitions. Extending this line of research to culture, we hypothesised that positive affect should promote (and negative affect should inhibit) culturally normative reasoning. The results of two studies of causal reasoning supported this hypothesis. Positive and negative affect functioned like “go” and “stop” signals, respectively, for culturally typical reasoning styles. Thus, in happy (compared to sad) moods, Koreans engaged in more holistic reasoning, whereas Americans engaged in more analytic reasoning.