The Influence of Social Comparison Situations on Individual Task Performance: Experimental Illustrations

In the past ten or so years, numerous experiments have been conducted to illustrate the intervention of social regulations in cognitive functioning (e.g., social coordination, sociocognitive conflict, and social marking). However, in that way, social comparison processes have not received any extended theoretical and empirical attention. Several experimental results are reported here in an attempt to show that the social conditions, in particular personal and categorical comparison situations, in which subjects are led to perform memory and problem-solving tasks constitute a determining factor in their cognitive performances. The discussion presents some new theoretical prospects for the study of social regulations of cognitive functioning.     

The influence of shyness on children's test performance

Background: Research has shown that shy children differ from their peers not only in their use of language in routine social encounters but also in formal assessments of their language development, including psychometric tests of vocabulary. There has been little examination of factors contributing to these individual differences. Aims: To investigate cognitive‐competence and social anxiety interpretations of differences in children's performance on tests of vocabulary. To examine the performance of shy and less shy children under different conditions of test administration, individually with an examiner or among their peers within the familiar classroom setting. Sample: The sample consisted of 240 Year 5 pupils (122 male, 118 female) from 24 primary schools. Method: Shy and less shy children, identified by teacher nomination and checklist ratings, completed vocabulary and mental arithmetic tests in one of three conditions, in a between‐subjects design. The conditions varied individual and group administration, and oral and written responses. Results: The conditions of test administration influenced the vocabulary test performance of shy children. They performed significantly more poorly than their peers in the two face‐to‐face conditions but not in the group test condition. A comparable trend for the arithmetic test was not statistically significant. Across the sample as a whole, shyness correlated significantly with test scores. Conclusions: Shyness does influence children's cognitive test performance and its impact is larger when children are tested face‐to‐face rather than in a more anonymous group setting. The results are of significance for theories of shyness and have implications for the assessment of schoolchildren.     

Beyond cognitive deficits: how social class shapes social cognition

Lower social class is thought to contribute to poorer executive functioning and working memory. Nevertheless, lower social class individuals consistently outperform their higher-class counterparts on social cognitive tasks that rely on similar underlying cognitive processes (e.g., working memory and executive functioning). Why would lower social class inhibit such processes in one domain, but promote them in another? We argue that features of lower-class communities (e.g., resource scarcity) promote social cognition via cultural processes. We then argue that social cognition involves partially unique task and neural demands that are separate from nonsocial cognition. We conclude that unique task and neural demands, together with the distinctive cognitive proclivities of lower- and higher-class cultures, can explain variable associations between social class and cognitive functioning.     

On the specificity of face cognition compared with general cognitive functioning across adult age

Face cognition is considered a specific human ability, clearly differentiable from general cognitive functioning. Its specificity is primarily supported by cognitive-experimental and neuroimaging research, but recently also from an individual differences perspective. However, no comprehensive behavioral data are available, which would allow estimating lifespan changes of the covariance structure of face-cognition abilities and general cognitive functioning as well as age-differences in face cognition after accounting for interindividual variability in general cognition. The present study aimed to fill this gap. In an age-heterogeneous (18-82 years) sample of 448 adults, we found no factorial dedifferentiation between face cognition and general cognition. Age-related differences in face memory were still salient after taking into account changes in general cognitive functioning. Face cognition thus remains a specific human ability compared with general cognition, even until old age. We discuss implications for models of cognitive aging and suggest that it is necessary to include more explicitly special social abilities in those models.     

Fear‐then‐relief,mindlessness, and cognitive deficits

The assumption that mindlessness underlies the effectiveness of the ‘fear‐then‐relief’ social influence technique has been verified in four studies. The first two experiments indicated that compliance of those experiment participants who were made to function on the thoughtful level under a ‘fear‐then‐relief’ condition decreases to the level observed in the control group. The other two experiments were to analyze the cognitive functioning of people who at first experience fear and then a sudden and unexpected relief. The first of these experiments indicated that the amount of time needed to detect the expression of emotion on other persons' faces is prolonged, and the second of these latter two experiments that the participants' arithmetical abilities are impaired (mental addition and subtraction of three two‐digit numbers). Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Internalizing behavior problems and scholastic achievement in children: cognitive and behavioral pathways as mediators of outcome.

Examined a conceptual model in which dual developmental pathways (behavioral and cognitive) are hypothesized to account for the relation among internalizing behavior problems, intelligence, and later scholastic achievement using a cross-sectional sample of 325 children. Classroom behavior and select aspects of cognitive functioning (vigilance, short-term memory) were hypothesized to mediate the relations among internalizing problems, IQ, and long-term scholastic achievement. Hierarchical tests applied to a nested series of models demonstrated that (a) individual differences in measured intelligence among children are associated with variations in classroom performance and cognitive functioning, (b) classroom performance and cognitive functioning make unique contributions to prediction of later achievement over and above the influence of intelligence, (c) anxious/depressive features are correlated but separable constructs, and (d) anxiety/depression and withdrawal contribute to prediction of classroom performance and cognitive functioning over and above the effects of intelligence. Classroom performance and cognitive functioning thus appear to mediate the effects of internalizing behaviors as well as intelligence. Particular attention to the presence and potential impact of social withdrawal on children's functioning, both alone and concomitant with anxiety/depression, appears warranted during the course of clinical evaluations owing to the strong continuity among these variables.     

The role of cognitive stimulation on the relations between age and cognitive functioning

To make a convincing argument that cognitive stimulation moderates age trends in cognition there must be (a) a negative relation between age and level of cognitive stimulation, (b) a positive relation between level of cognitive stimulation and level of cognitive functioning, and (c) evidence of an interaction between age and cognitive stimulation in the prediction of cognitive functioning. These conditions were investigated in a study in which 204 adults between 20 and 91 years of age completed an activity inventory and performed a variety of cognitive tasks. Only the 1st condition received empirical support, and, thus, the results of this study provide little evidence for the hypothesis that cognitive stimulation preserves or enhances cognitive functioning that would otherwise decline.     

Parent-completed and adolescent-completed CDIs: Relationship to adolescent social and cognitive functioning

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of both young adolescents' scores on the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) and their mothers' ratings of the adolescents' depression (parent-completed CDI) to indices of their social and cognitive functioning obtained from a source outside the home. Subjects consisted of a nonclinic sample of 85 young adolescents (11–15 years of age), their mothers, and their social studies teachers. Recent school grades and teacher-completed measures served as the indices of adolescent social and cognitive competence. The results indicated that both adolescents' and mothers' CDI scores were significantly and negatively correlated with measures of adolescent cognitive and social functioning. Multiple regression analyses, utilizing adolescent- and parent-completed CDI scores as predictors, indicated that both predictor variables entered into the equations for cognitive functioning while only the mother-completed CDI entered into those for social functioning. When maternal depression was also entered into the multiple regressions, the findings regarding mother- and adolescent-completed CDI scores were not altered. The relationship of these findings to other somewhat disparate findings concerning the utility of mother and child reports of child depression is discussed.This research was supported, in part, by the William T. Grant Foundation and the University of Georgia's Institute for Behavioral Research.     

Mental exercising through simple socializing: social interaction promotes general cognitive functioning

Social interaction is a central feature of people's life and engages a variety of cognitive resources. Thus, social interaction should facilitate general cognitive functioning. Previous studies suggest such a link, but they used special populations (e.g., elderly with cognitive impairment), measured social interaction indirectly (e.g., via marital status), and only assessed effects of extended interaction in correlational designs. Here the relation between mental functioning and direct indicators of social interaction was examined in a younger and healthier population. Study 1 using survey methodology found a positive relationship between social interaction, assessed via amount of actual social contact, and cognitive functioning in people from three age groups including younger adults. Study 2 using an experimental design found that a small amount of social interaction (10 min) can facilitate cognitive performance. The findings are discussed in the context of the benefits social relationships have for so many aspects of people's lives.     

Facial affect processing and depression susceptibility: cognitive biases and cognitive neuroscience

Facial affect processing is essential to social development and functioning and is particularly relevant to models of depression. Although cognitive and interpersonal theories have long described different pathways to depression, cognitive-interpersonal and evolutionary social risk models of depression focus on the interrelation of interpersonal experience, cognition, and social behavior. We therefore review the burgeoning depressive facial affect processing literature and examine its potential for integrating disciplines, theories, and research. In particular, we evaluate studies in which information processing or cognitive neuroscience paradigms were used to assess facial affect processing in depressed and depression-susceptible populations. Most studies have assessed and supported cognitive models. This research suggests that depressed and depression-vulnerable groups show abnormal facial affect interpretation, attention, and memory, although findings vary based on depression severity, comorbid anxiety, or length of time faces are viewed. Facial affect processing biases appear to correspond with distinct neural activity patterns and increased depressive emotion and thought. Biases typically emerge in depressed moods but are occasionally found in the absence of such moods. Indirect evidence suggests that childhood neglect might cultivate abnormal facial affect processing, which can impede social functioning in ways consistent with cognitive-interpersonal and interpersonal models. However, reviewed studies provide mixed support for the social risk model prediction that depressive states prompt cognitive hypervigilance to social threat information. We recommend prospective interdisciplinary research examining whether facial affect processing abnormalities promote-or are promoted by-depressogenic attachment experiences, negative thinking, and social dysfunction.     

A longitudinal study of bilingual and cognitive development(1)

This paper presents the findings of a longitudinal study of IQ data collected over a 5-year period (Grades K-4) on pupils enrolled in a French immersion program (anglophone pupils receiving all instruction in French except English language arts) and pupils in the regular English program. Although year-by-year results may fail to show IQ differences between the two groups, repeated measures analysis indicates that the immersion group has a higher IQ measure over the 5-year period. However, considering Grades 1–3 only, which involved the administration of the same test, the two groups do not score differentially with respect to either overall IQ measure or specific subtest scores (classification/categorization, analogies, following of verbal directions) when scores are adjusted for initial IQ (and age) differences, thus failing initially to support studies which show positive relationships between bilingualism and cognitive functioning. However, supportive of those studies is a further analysis on the data of immersion pupils classified as “high” French achievers vs. “low” French achievers. The high French achievers obtain significantly higher IQ measures and subtest scores (analogies and following of verbal directions) than the low French achievers, even when scores are adjusted for initial IQ and age differences. These findings are interpreted in the context of Cummins' (1976) “threshold” hypothesis relating to level of competence in the second language.     

Adolescent risk-taking is predicted by individual differences in cognitive control over emotional,but not non-emotional,response conflict

While much research on adolescent risk behaviour has focused on the development of prefrontal self-regulatory mechanisms, prior studies have elicited mixed evidence of a relationship between individual differences in the capacity for self-regulation and individual differences in risk taking. To explain these inconsistent findings, it has been suggested that the capacity for self-regulation may be, for most adolescents, adequately mature to produce adaptive behaviour in non-affective, “cold” circumstances, but that adolescents have a more difficult time exerting control in affective, “hot” contexts. To further explore this claim, the present study examined individual differences in self-control in the face of affective and non-affective response conflict, and examined whether differences in the functioning of cognitive control processes under these different conditions was related to risk taking. Participants completed a cognitive Stroop task, an emotional Stroop task, and a risky driving task known as the Stoplight game. Regression analyses showed that performance on the emotional Stroop task predicted laboratory risk-taking in the driving task, whereas performance on the cognitive Stroop task did not exhibit the same trend. This pattern of results is consistent with theories of adolescent risk-taking that emphasise the impacts of affective contextual influences on the ability to enact effective cognitive control.     

Social cognitive theory of gender development and differentiation

Human differentiation on the basis of gender is a fundamental phenomenon that affects virtually every aspect of people's daily lives. This article presents the social cognitive theory of gender role development and functioning. It specifies how gender conceptions are constructed from the complex mix of experiences and how they operate in concert with motivational and self-regulatory mechanisms to guide gender-linked conduct throughout the life course. The theory integrates psychological and sociostructural determinants within a unified conceptual structure. In this theoretical perspective, gender conceptions and roles are the product of a broad network of social influences operating interdependently in a variety of societal subsystems. Human evolution provides bodily structures and biological potentialities that permit a range of possibilities rather than dictate a fixed type of gender differentiation. People contribute to their self-development and bring about social changes that define and structure gender relationships through their agentic actions within the interrelated systems of influence.     

Agreeableness is related to social‐cognitive,but not social‐perceptual,theory of mind

We hypothesise on a number of grounds that the personality dimension of Agreeableness may be associated with inter‐individual differences in theory of mind (ToM) functioning. However, it is important to distinguish social‐perceptual from social‐cognitive ToM. Previous findings on ToM in psychopathic individuals, sex differences in ToM and the associations between ToM and social relationships, all suggest that social‐cognitive ToM is more likely than social‐perceptual ToM to relate to Agreeableness. In separate empirical studies, we find that Agreeableness is substantially correlated with social‐cognitive ToM performance, but uncorrelated with social‐perceptual ToM performance. We suggest that the propensity or motivation to attend to the mental states of others may be central to the personality dimension of Agreeableness. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A cognitive model of insomnia

Insomnia is one of the most prevalent psychological disorders, causing sufferers severe distress as well as social, interpersonal, and occupational impairment. Drawing on well-validated cognitive models of the anxiety disorders as well as on theoretical and empirical work highlighting the contribution of cognitive processes to insomnia, this paper presents a new cognitive model of the maintenance of insomnia. It is suggested that individuals who suffer from insomnia tend to be overly worried about their sleep and about the daytime consequences of not getting enough sleep. This excessive negatively toned cognitive activity triggers both autonomic arousal and emotional distress. It is proposed that this anxious state triggers selective attention towards and monitoring of internal and external sleep-related threat cues. Together, the anxious state and the attentional processes triggered by it tricks the individual into overestimating the extent of the perceived deficit in sleep and daytime performance. It is suggested that the excessive negatively toned cognitive activity will be fuelled if a sleep-related threat is detected or a deficit perceived. Counterproductive safety behaviours (including thought control, imagery control, emotional inhibition, and difficulty problem solving) and erroneous beliefs about sleep and the benefits of worry are highlighted as exacerbating factors. The unfortunate consequence of this sequence of events is that the excessive and escalating anxiety may culminate in a real deficit in sleep and daytime functioning. The literature providing preliminary support for the model is reviewed and the clinical implications and limitations discussed.     

Role of individual neurons and neural networks in cognitive functioning of the brain: a new insight

The prevailing concept in modern neuroscience is that neuron networks play a dominant role in the functioning of the nervous system, whereas the role of individual neurons is rather insignificant. This concept suggests that "individuality" of single neurons is primarily determined by their place in a network rather than their intrinsic properties. Here I argue that individual neurons may play an important, if not decisive, role in performing cognitive functions of the brain. This tentative viewpoint is supported by experimental and clinical insights into disorders of cognitive functions and by genetic studies of cognitive abilities and disabilities. The results obtained in these studies indicate that many specific cognitive functions are carried out by groups of highly specialized neurons whose roles in performing these functions are genetically predetermined and their activity could not be substituted by the activity of other neurons. In this context, the main role of neural networks and intercellular interactions is to form dynamic ensembles of neurons involved in performing a given cognitive function.     

Automated cognitive testing of monkeys in social groups yields results comparable to individual laboratory-based testing

Cognitive abilities likely evolved in response to specific environmental and social challenges and are therefore expected to be specialized for the life history of each species. Specialized cognitive abilities may be most readily engaged under conditions that approximate the natural environment of the species being studied. While naturalistic environments might therefore have advantages over laboratory settings for cognitive research, it is difficult to conduct certain types of cognitive tests in these settings. We implemented methods for automated cognitive testing of monkeys (Macaca mulatta) in large social groups (Field station) and compared the performance to that of laboratory-housed monkeys (Laboratory). The Field station animals shared access to four touch-screen computers in a large naturalistic social group. Each Field station subject had an RFID chip implanted in each arm for computerized identification and individualized assignment of cognitive tests. The Laboratory group was housed and tested in a typical laboratory setting, with individual access to testing computers in their home cages. Monkeys in both groups voluntarily participated at their own pace for food rewards. We evaluated performance in two visual psychophysics tests, a perceptual classification test, a transitive inference test, and a delayed matching-to-sample memory test. Despite the differences in housing, social environment, age, and sex, monkeys in the two groups performed similarly in all tests. Semi-free ranging monkeys living in complex social environments are therefore viable subjects for cognitive testing designed to take advantage of the unique affordances of naturalistic testing environments.     

面相识人：基于认知视角的解释

面相是辨识和推断他人品格以及行为习性的重要因素,但其内在机理有待深化。基于一般认知视角和进化认知视角,从面相的局部特征和整体特征出发,阐述面相识人的过程及其影响效果。从一般认知视角来看,面相会通过不同的认知加工系统对识别个体特质产生影响,识别到的个体特质在判断(能力、收入、社会层级)以及决策(信任、招聘与晋升)过程中扮演重要角色。从进化认知视角来看,面相会通过不同的进化选择机制对识别个体健康、基因状况发挥作用,进而对判断(婚姻满意度、幸福感、生活满意度)和择偶决策产生重要影响。此外,面相的影响程度取决于个体所处的情境以及个体特质等因素。未来研究应该考察不同面相之间的交互作用,探索面相识人效果的边界条件,利用大数据分析提升面相研究的外部效度,关注后天修饰的面相的影响效果,开展本土情境下的面相识人研究,从而丰富面相的研究内容,构建更加系统的面相研究理论体系。     

社会阶层的心理学研究：社会认知视角

社会阶层是心理学研究的一个新的前沿领域,是指由于经济、政治等多种原因而形成的,在社会层次结构中处于不同地位的群体,这些群体之间存在着客观的社会资源（收入、教育和职业）的差异,以及感知到由此造成的社会地位的差异。基于社会认知视角的社会阶层理论认为,处于同一阶层中的个体,由于共享的经历,形成了相对稳定的认知倾向,低阶层者是情境主义的,高阶层是唯我主义的。大量的实证研究进一步证实,环境所导致的认知倾向差异,使得高低阶层这在感知自我、他人和社会的方式存在显著的不同。而阶层的流动性对个体心理与行为的影响以及本土化的社会阶层心理学研究是需要未来深入探索的研究方向。     

The cognitive functioning of older adult instrumental musicians and non-musicians

This study examined similarities and differences in the cognitive profiles of older adult instrumental musicians and non-musicians. We compared neuropsychological test scores among older adult non-musicians, low-activity musicians (<10 years of lessons), and high-activity musicians (≥10 years of lessons), controlling for self-reported physical and social activity, years of education, and overall health. Significant differences among groups were found on tasks of visual spatial ability, naming, and executive functioning. No significant differences were found on tests of attention/processing speed, or episodic memory. The current study supports late life cognitive benefits of early musical training, but only in select cognitive domains, including language, executive functioning, and visual spatial ability. The results are discussed in the context of cognitive reserve and aging.