Effects of social exclusion on inhibitory control and working memory—Focusing on hard-of-hearing college students

Abstract

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.