The effect of social feedback from peers on adolescent cognitive control

Introduction: Social feedback can influence cognitive control during adolescence, particularly if provided by peers. The main aim of this study was to investigate if feedback given by liked or disliked peers differentially influenced adolescents' cognitive control. The second aim was to investigate if these effects could be linked to the participants’ social embeddedness in their classroom.

Methods: A personalized incentive go/no-go task was administered to 45 early adolescents (M = 11.6 years, 25 male) and 68 late adolescents (M = 16.7, 38 male) in the Netherlands. Feedback was given after no-go trials in two social feedback conditions (displaying a picture of a real liked or disliked classmate) and in a non-social control condition.

Results: Performance on the task significantly improved with age. We found no differences between conditions in cognitive control, as measured by d-prime. However, analysis of task speed revealed slower reaction times during the liked peer condition as compared to the disliked peer and the control condition, potentially suggesting that participants responded more cautiously, or alternatively that participants were more distracted. These effects did not differ between age groups. Participants’ differences in task performance were not reflected in their social embeddedness in the classroom.

Conclusions: This study shows that the same kind of social feedback can have different effects on adolescent behaviour depending on the peer delivering the feedback. It demonstrates the importance of studying the effects of real life social environments to better understand and utilize their impact on adolescent development.