The Effects of Social Exclusion on Attention to Vocal Tone as Measured by Event Related Potentials
Year: 2010
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Previous research has shown that social exclusion leads to what Baumeister and colleagues called 'cognitive concussion,' a temporary cognitive state that results in suboptimal decisions and judgments.At present, however, not much is known about this interesting phenomenon.In the present work, we used a brain response that marks the detection of word meaning against its background vocal tone as a marker of one's ability to hold expectations, as incongruity should be increasingly more difficult to detect as one's ability to hold expected word meanings dissipates.Participants were subjected to a social exclusion manipulation followed by a vocal Stroop task during which electroencephalography (EEG) measurements were recorded.In this task, words with positive or negative meanings were spoken in both positive and negative tones, resulting in congruent and incongruent trials (e.g.'happy' in a sharp, negative tone).The primary ERP component of interest is the N400, which is commonly elicited by semantic incongruity.Results indicate that participants in the social exclusion condition showed significantly less attention to vocal tone, as measured by N400 amplitude, when compared to those in the inclusion condition.This is consistent with previous research and the hypothesis that social exclusion can lead to a state of 'emotional numbness' or 'cognitive concussion' that would inhibit the ability to process vocal Stroop stimuli.
Author: Samuel Boas
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1838280406