Developmental Differences in the Effect of Mere Social Presence on Children's Inhibitory Control and Attention

• In Event: Enhancing Kindergarten Readiness: Targeting Executive Functions, Social Environments, and Cognitive Processes

Abstract

A large body of work demonstrates that the presence of others influences cognitive control processes. Recent research suggests that even the mere image of eyes can induce the feeling of being watched (Ernest-Jones, Nettle, & Bateson, 2011). The effect of these minimal social stimuli on inhibitory control performance has yet to be examined in adults let alone in young children. We explore developmental differences in the effect of social stimuli on children’s inhibitory control performance across three conditions (angry eyes, happy eyes, and flowers).
Eighty-four 4- to 5-year-old children completed a Flanker Inhibitory Control task (Rueda et al., 2004) with a picture of angry eyes, a picture of happy eyes, or a picture of flowers (Non-Social Object condition) at the top of the computer screen. Using median reaction times for congruent and incongruent trials, an Executive Network (the resolution of conflict amongst stimulus elements) was calculated and used as the dependent variable. Children also completed a theory of mind battery (Wellman & Liu, 2004), which assessed children’s understanding on 5 tasks: Knowledge Access, Diverse Desires Diverse Beliefs, False Beliefs, and Hidden Emotion. Children received one point for each task passed (max=5). Children who passed three tasks or less were placed in the “low ToM” group and those who passed at least four were placed in the “high ToM” group.
To explore the influence of minimal social presence on Flanker performance, we conducted a 3 (Condition: Angry, Happy, Flowers) x 2(ToM: Low, High) ANOVA on Executive Network score, controlling for age in months. This analysis revealed a significant Condition x Age interaction, F(2,77)=3.66, p<.05. Pairwise comparisons indicate that those who scored low on the ToM battery performed similarly across all conditions (Angry M=401.56ms, Happy M=-94.49ms, and Flowers M=108.14ms; p>.05). However, those who scored high on the ToM demonstrated facilitated performance in the angry eyes condition (M=43.74ms). There was a trend in that those who performed the task in the presence of an image of angry eyes had a better mean Executive Network score compared to those who performed the task in the presence of a picture of flowers (t=1.99, p=.057) and those who performed the task in the presence of a picture of happy eyes (t=1.40, p=.07). On the other hand, there was no significant difference or demonstrated trend in Executive Network score between the happy eyes (M=283.58ms) and the flowers (M=421.28ms) condition (t=.65, p=.52). These patterns were even more pronounced when comparing children who passed and did not pass the Hidden Emotion task of the ToM battery.
Our results suggest that children’s explicit understanding of other’s mental states, particularly emotions, is related to their sensitivity to social cues, which in turn influences their inhibitory control and attention. We discuss implications for the evaluation of executive function in relation to co-occurring social context.

Authors

• Grace Min, Boston University

• Rachel Bell, Boston University

• Jason C. Chin, Boston University

• Amy Chao

• Kathleen H. Corriveau, Boston University