As social animals, humans have the basic need to belong, be accepted by society or group, and form positive, stable, and lasting social relationships with others. However, the fulfillment of this basic need is threatened by social exclusion. Many studies have focused on the social impact of social exclusion, i.e., how social exclusion affects the social function of the organism. In contrast, few have studied the cognitive control mechanism behind it. Cognitive control is divided into working memory, inhibitory control ability, and cognitive flexibility, while the research commonly uses working memory and constant control ability. Deaf and hard-of-hearing people are a particular group with a large population. Compared with ordinary people, they are more likely to suffer from social exclusion. Compared with ordinary people, deaf and hard-of-hearing people have different neural mechanisms, such as vision and hearing. Starting from social exclusion, this paper reviews the impact of social exclusion on cognitive control. It introduces the perspective of the hearing-impaired population to provide a new idea for future research and improve the existing theoretical results.

Haotian Dong, Xiaona Zong. Effects of social exclusion on inhibitory control and working memory—Focusing on hard-of-hearing college students. International Journal of Frontiers in Sociology (2023), Vol. 5, Issue 2: 79-84. https://doi.org/10.25236/IJFS.2023.050214.

[1] Morgan C, Burns T, Fitzpatrick R, et al. Social exclusion and mental health: conceptual and methodological review[J]. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 2007, 191(6): 477-483.

[2] Baumeister R F, Leary M R. The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation[J]. Interpersonal development, 2017: 57-89. 

[3] Leary M R, Tambor E S, Terdal S K, et al. Self-esteem as an interpersonal monitor: The sociometer hypothesis[J]. Journal of personality and social psychology, 1995, 68(3): 518. 

[4] CHENG S, LIU L, ZHENG Y. Research paradigms and theoretical models of social exclusion[J]. Advances in Psychological Science, 2011, 19(6): 905. 

[5] Banki S, O'Reilly J. Social exclusion: Psychological approaches to understanding and reducing its impact[M]. Springer International Publishing, 2016. 

[6] Letia A. Methods for Investigating Cyber Crime[J]. Social Science Electronic Publishing, 2013.

[7] Williams K D, Cheung C K T, Choi W. Cyberostracism: effects of being ignored over the Internet[J]. Journal of personality and social psychology, 2000, 79(5): 748.

[8] Williams K D, Jarvis B. Cyberball: A program for use in research on interpersonal ostracism and acceptance[J]. Behavior Research Methods, 2006, 38(1):174-180.

[9] Weed K, Nicholson J S. Differential social evaluation of pregnant teens, teen mothers and teen fathers by university students[J]. International Journal of Adolescence & Youth, 2015, 20(1):1-16.

[10] Hartgerink C H J, Van Beest I, Wicherts J M, et al. The ordinal effects of ostracism: A meta-analysis of 120 Cyberball studies[J]. PloS one, 2015, 10(5): e0127002.

[11] Xu X, Li J, Chen Z, et al. Oxytocin reduces top-down control of attention by increasing bottom-up attention allocation to social but not non-social stimuli–a randomized controlled trial[J]. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2019, 108: 62-69.

[12] Xu M, Qiao L, Qi S, et al. Social exclusion weakens storage capacity and attentional filtering ability in visual working memory[J]. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 2018, 13(1): 92-101. 

[13] Park J, White A, Stevinson C, et al. Validating a new non-penetrating sham acupuncture device: two randomised controlled trials[J]. Acupuncture in medicine, 2002, 20(4): 168-174. 

[14] Simard V, Dandeneau S. Revisiting the Cyberball inclusion condition: Fortifying fundamental needs by making participants the target of specific inclusion[J]. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2018, 74:38-42.

[15] Chester D S, Dewall C N. Combating the sting of rejection with the pleasure of revenge: a new look at how emotion shapes aggression[J]. Journal of personality and social psychology, 2017, 112(3): 413.

[16] González-García D A, Acuna L. Social acceptance and rejection of people with different body size [J]. DE PSICOLOGÍA, 2014, 31(1): 58-70. 

[17] Lakin J L, Chartrand T L, Arkin R M. I Am Too Just Like You[J]. Psychological Science, 2008, 19(8):816-822.

[18] Pishnamazi M, Nojaba Y, Ganjgahi H, et al. Neural correlates of audiotactile phonetic processing in early-blind readers: an fMRI study[J]. Experimental Brain Research, 2016, 234(5):1263-1277.

[19] Buelow M T, Okdie B M, Brunell A B, et al. Stuck in a moment and you cannot get out of it: The lingering effects of ostracism on cognition and satisfaction of basic needs[J]. Personality & Individual Differences, 2015, 76:39-43.

[20] Zadro L, Boland C, Richardson R. How long does it last? The persistence of the effects of ostracism in the socially anxious[J]. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2006, 42(5):692-697.

[21] LIU X, NAN W, WANG K, et al. Modular organization of cognitive control[J]. Advances in Psychological Science, 2013, 21(12): 2091. 

[22] Krosnick J A. Survey research[J]. Annual review of psychology, 1999, 50(1): 537-567. 

[23] Gratton G, Cooper P, Fabiani M, et al. Dynamics of cognitive control: Theoretical bases, paradigms, and a view for the future[J]. Psychophysiology, 2018, 55(3): e13016. 

[24] Wais P E, Gazzaley A. The impact of auditory distraction on retrieval of visual memories[J]. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2011, 18(6): 1090-1097.

[25] Jamieson J P, Harkins S G, Williams K D. Need threat can motivate performance after ostracism[J]. Personality and social psychology bulletin, 2010, 36(5): 690-702. 

[26] Baumeister R F, Dewall C N, Ciarocco N J, et al. Social Exclusion Impairs Self-Regulation[J]. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2005, 88(4):589-604.

[27] Anderson J E, Holcomb P J. An electrophysiological investigation of the effects of coreference on word repetition and synonymy[J]. Brain & Language, 2005, 94(2):200-216.

[28] Iffland B, Sansen L M, Catani C, et al. Rapid heartbeat, but dry palms: reactions of heart rate and skin conductance levels to social rejection[J]. Frontiers in Psychology, 2014, 5: 956. 

[29] Baumeister R F, Twenge J M, Nuss C K. Effects of social exclusion on cognitive processes: anticipated aloneness reduces intelligent thought.[J]. J Pers Soc Psychol, 2002, 83(4):817-827.

[30] Buelow M T, Okdie B M, Brunell A B, et al. Stuck in a moment and you cannot get out of it: The lingering effects of ostracism on cognition and satisfaction of basic needs[J]. Personality & Individual Differences, 2015, 76:39-43.

[31] Cho E K, Sung J E, Sim H S. The Effects of Working Memory Capacity on Language Performance in Children with Cochlear Implants[J]. Communication Sciences & Disorders, 2012, 17(1): 79-91. 

[32] David J. Hawesa*, Lisa Zadroa, Elian Finka, Rick Richardsonb, Kathleen O'Moorea, Brendan Griffithsa, Mark R. Daddsb & Kipling D. Williamsc. The effects of peer ostracism on children's cognitive processes[J]. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 2012, 9(5):599-613.

[33] Montoliu T, Hidalgo V, Salvador A. The relationship between loneliness and cognition in healthy older men and women: The role of cortisol[J]. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2019, 107: 270-279.

[34] Wilson R S, Krueger K R, Arnold S E, et al. Loneliness and Risk of Alzheimer Disease[J]. Archives of General Psychiatry, 2007, 64(2):234-240.

[35] Zadro L, Boland C, Richardson R. How long does it last? The persistence of the effects of ostracism in the socially anxious[J]. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2006, 42(5):692-697.

[36] Adibsereshki N, Vernosfaderani A M, Movallali G. The effectiveness of life skills training on enhancing the social skills of children with hearing impairments in inclusive schools[J]. Childhood Education, 2015, 91(6): 469-476.

[37] Wilson M, Bettger J G, Niculae I, et al. Modality of language shapes working memory: Evidence from digit span and spatial span in ASL signers[J]. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 1997: 150-160.

[38] Harris M, Moreno C. Deaf children's use of phonological coding: Evidence from reading, spelling, and working memory[J]. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 2004, 9(3): 253-268.