Familiar Peers Research Articles

Peer Presence Effects on Eye Movements and Attentional Performance.

“Social facilitation” refers to the enhancement or impairment of performance engendered by the mere presence of others. It has been demonstrated for a diversity of behaviors. This study assessed whether it also concerns attention and eye movements and if yes, which decision-making mechanisms it affects. Human volunteers were tested in three different tasks (saccades, visual search, and continuous performance) either alone or in the presence of a familiar peer. The results failed to reveal any significant peer influence on the visual search and continuous performance tasks. For saccades, by contrast, they showed a negative or positive peer influence depending on the complexity of the testing protocol. Pro-and anti-saccades were both inhibited when pseudorandomly mixed, and both facilitated when performed separately. Peer presence impaired or improved reaction times, i.e., the speed to initiate the saccade, as well as peak velocity, i.e., the driving force moving the eye toward the target. Effect sizes were large, with Cohen’s d-values ranging for reaction times (RTs) from 0.50 to 0.95. Analyzing RT distributions using the LATER (Linear Approach to Threshold with Ergodic Rate) model revealed that social inhibition of pro- and anti-saccades in the complex protocol was associated with a significant increase in the rate of rise. The present demonstration that the simple presence of a familiar peer can inhibit or facilitate saccades depending on task difficulty strengthens a growing body of evidence showing social modulations of eye movements and attention processes. The present lack of effect on visual search and continuous performance tasks contrasts with peer presence effects reported earlier using similar tasks, and future studies are needed to determine whether it is due to an intermediate level of difficulty maximizing individual variability. Together with an earlier study of the social inhibition of anti-saccades also using the LATER model, which showed an increase of the threshold, the present increase of the rate of rise suggests that peer presence can influence both the top-down and bottom-up attention-related processes guiding the decision to move the eyes.

Affiliation, Aggression, and Selectivity of Peer Relationships in Meadow and Prairie Voles.

Relationships between adult peers are central to the structure of social groups. In some species, selective preferences for specific peers provide a foundation for consistent group composition. These preferences may be shaped by affiliation toward familiar individuals, and/or by aversion to unfamiliar individuals. We compared peer interactions in two vole species that form selective preferences for familiar same-sex individuals but differ in mating system. Prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) form pair bonds with mates and may reside in family groups. Meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus) are promiscuous breeders that form communal winter groups in the wild, and exhibit greater social behavior in short day (SD) lengths in the laboratory. We characterized affiliative, anxiety-like, and aggressive interactions with familiar and novel same-sex conspecifics in meadow and prairie voles housed in summer- or winter-like photoperiods. Species differences in affective behaviors were pronounced, with prairie voles exhibiting more aggressive behavior and less anxiety-like behavior relative to meadow voles. Meadow voles housed in short (vs. long) day lengths were more affiliative and more interactive with strangers; prosocial behavior was also facilitated by a history of social housing. Prairie voles exhibited partner preferences regardless of sex or day length, indicating that selective peer preferences are the norm in prairie voles. Prairie vole females formed preferences for new same-sex social partners following re-pairing; males were often aggressive upon re-pairing. These data suggest that preferences for familiar peers in prairie voles are maintained in part by aggression toward unfamiliar individuals, as in mate partnerships. In contrast, social tolerance is an important feature of meadow vole peer affiliation, demonstrated by low aggression toward unfamiliar conspecifics, and consistent with field data on winter tolerance.

Expressivity in children's drawings of themselves for adult audiences with varied authority and familiarity.

This study investigated whether children's expressive drawings of themselves vary as a function of audience authority and familiarity. One hundred and seventy‐five children, 85 boys and 90 girls, aged between 8 years 1 months and 9 years 2 months (M = 8 years 5 months) were allocated into seven groups: a reference group (n = 25), where no audience was specified, and six audience groups (n = 25 per group) varying by audience type (policeman vs. teacher vs. man) and familiarity (familiar vs. unfamiliar). They drew baseline then happy and sad drawings of themselves, rated affect towards drawings type, and rated perceived audience authority. Audience familiarity and authority impacted expressive drawing strategy use and this varied by gender. There was higher overall expressive strategy use for happy drawings and for girls, and influences of affect type, familiarity, and authority were found. The implications of children's perceptions of audience type on their expressive drawings are discussed. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Children vary their happy and sad expressive drawings for familiar peer and adult audiences.They show more positive expressivity to familiar peer and adult audiences.Children perceive authority differently depending on professional roles. What does this study add? Children's expressive drawings differ depending on audience familiarity and professional role.Greater expressivity for familiar than unfamiliar audiences, with difference varying by perceived authority.For policemen, boys showed more sad expression when unfamiliar and girls showed more happy expression when familiar.

A Study of Metacommunication Signals in the Initiation of Pretend Play of 3-6 year-old Children

Pretend play is the most typical play among children aged 3-6 years old, the initiation of which needs children’s matecommunication ability. In turn, the temecommunication ability of children can be enhanced and strengthened during the play. And thus the topic of how children initiate matecommunication signals in the pretend play is worthy to research. Using observation as research method, the researchers analyzed the metacommunication signals in the initiation of pretend play of 60 children aged 3-6. The results are as follows: (1) the metacommunication signals used by children aged 3-6 on pretend play show a tendency of transition from non-verbal signals to verbal signals with the increase of age. (2) Metacommunication signals used in regional activities show a feature of borrowing special materials and being limited by material exploring ability, and metacommunication signals used in life activities show a feature of using spontaneous physical actions. (3) The signals used by familiar peers are identifiable and changed frequently, and signals used by unfamiliar peers are repeatedly explained and are controlled. Some suggestions are provided. Reachers propose responding suggestions for teachers in the kindergarten: (1) Properly place regional material (2) Support children’s spontaneous communicative activities. (3) Promote the development of the psychological theory of children in junior class.

The role of audience familiarity and activity outcome in children's understanding of disclaimers.

Disclaimers are used prior to expected poor performance to protect the individual from being evaluated negatively by the audience (Lee et al., 1999, Personality and Individual Differences, 26, 701). In this study, 8‐, 11‐, and 14‐year‐olds (N = 147) heard stories of a protagonist telling a familiar or unfamiliar peer that they did not think that they would perform well today, followed by either no disclaimer or a disclaimer and the activity outcome. Children judged how the audience would rate the protagonist's typical performance and character, and judged their response motivation. Children judged that familiar audiences would be more positive about typical performance and character than unfamiliar audiences; this varied depending on disclaimer use and participant sex. Further, children's typical performance judgements were more positive when the outcome was negative if a disclaimer was offered, with older children recognizing the self‐presentational motivation in these conditions. Results are explored in relation to children's understanding of disclaimers. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? By 10 years, children understand the mitigating function of a disclaimer.Audience characteristics (age and familiarity) affect children's self‐presentation judgements.Children have difficulty understanding why someone would disclose negative information of the self. What the present study adds From 11 years showed an understanding of the self‐presentational (SP) function of disclaimers.The disclaimer's mitigating function was only found when the activity outcome was negative.More positive judgements with familiar peers, but more SP justifications with unfamiliar peers.

The impact of residential area and family size on children’s play habits

ABSTRACT A questionnaire given to 221 mothers for gathering information about residential area and family size and three aspects in children’s play habits: frequency, location, and choice of playmate. The results showed that there was a general tendency to play indoors rather than outdoors, regardless of residential area (urban vs. rural). Family size and the age gap between siblings were found to have a significant impact on play habits. Children with two or more siblings were more likely to play with their siblings, particularly if the age gap between them was less than five years. Playing at home with siblings means that the children in this study spent less time playing outdoors and engaging with familiar and unfamiliar peers. The results discussed in terms of the Childrens’ well being and the development of social skills. Parents, professionals, and community planners should consider ways of encouraging children to play outside.

Becoming prosocial peers: The roles of temperamental shyness and mothers’ and fathers’ elaborative emotion language

AbstractUsing a sample of 99 2‐ to 5‐year‐olds (51 girls, 48 boys), we evaluated whether parent‐reported temperamental shyness was associated with prosocial behaviors with same‐aged peers, and considered parenting (use of elaborative emotion language) and parent and child gender as possible moderators of relations between shyness and prosocial behaviors. Active and passive forms of prosocial behavior were evaluated when children were with familiar and unfamiliar peers. There were no direct associations between shyness and peer prosocial behaviors. Fathers’ emotion elaboration predicted more active prosocial behavior with familiar peers. There were significant moderating effects of parental emotion language, and parent and child gender, on relations between shyness and prosocial behavior. When mothers used more emotion elaboration, less shy children showed more active prosocial behavior toward unfamiliar peers and less passive prosocial behavior with familiar peers. Conversely, when fathers used more emotion elaboration, more shy boys engaged in more active prosocial behaviors with unfamiliar peers. These findings suggest that multiple social and contextual factors influence whether shy children become proactive helpers and sharers. Shy boys may particularly benefit from emotion elaboration from fathers whereas less shy children may be most prepared to benefit from mothers’ emotion language.

Specificity in Sociality: Mice and Prairie Voles Exhibit Different Patterns of Peer Affiliation.

Social behavior is often described as a unified concept, but highly social (group-living) species exhibit distinct social structures and may make different social decisions. Prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) are socially monogamous rodents that often reside in extended family groups, and exhibit robust preferences for familiar social partners (same- and opposite-sex) during extended choice tests, although short-term preferences are not known. Mice (Mus musculus) are gregarious and colonial, but in brief laboratory tests of social preference they typically prefer social novelty. This preference for novel vs. familiar peers may represent a species-specific difference in social decision-making between mice and prairie voles. However, the tests used to measure preferences in each species differ markedly in duration and degree of contact, such that the behaviors cannot be directly compared. We assessed whether social preferences for novelty or familiarity differed between mice and prairie voles of both sexes when assessed with matching protocols: the sociability/social preference test (SPT) typically used in mice (short, no direct contact), and the partner preference test (PPT) used in voles (long, direct contact). A subset of voles also underwent a PPT using barriers (long, no direct contact). In the short SPT, behavior did not differ between species. In the longer test, pronounced partner preferences emerged in prairie voles, but mice exhibited no social preferences and rarely huddled. No sex differences were evident in either test. Direct physical contact was required for partner preferences in huddling time in voles, but preference for the partner chamber was evident with or without contact. Both prairie voles and mice are social, but they exhibit important differences in the specificity and extent of their social behavior. While mice are often used to study social approach and other behaviors, voles are a more suitable species for the study of selective social relationships. Consideration of these differences will be important for studies examining the neural mechanisms supporting different kinds of peer social behavior.

The Effect of Psychological Distance on Children's Reasoning about Future Preferences.

Young preschool-aged children often have difficulty thinking about the future, but tend to reason better about another person’s future than their own. This benefit may reflect psychological distance from one’s own emotions, beliefs, and states that may bias thinking. In adults, reasoning for others who are more socially distant (i.e., dissimilar, unfamiliar other) is associated with wiser and more adaptive reasoning. The current studies examined whether this effect of social distance could be demonstrated in young children’s future thinking. In a future preferences task, 3- and 4-year-olds were shown 5 pairs of child and adult items and selected which ones they would prefer when grown-up. Children answered for themselves, a socially close peer, or a socially distant peer. Social distance was manipulated by varying similarity in Study 1 and familiarity in Study 2. In Study 1, reasoning for similar and dissimilar peers was significantly more accurate than reasoning for the self, but reasoning for similar and dissimilar peers did not differ. In Study 2, scores showed a step-wise increase from self, familiar peer, to unfamiliar peer, but only reasoning for an unfamiliar peer was significantly better more accurate than reasoning for the self. Reasoning for a familiar peer did not differ from reasoning for the self or for an unfamiliar peer. These results suggest that, like adults, children benefit from psychological distance when reasoning for others, but are less sensitive to degrees of social distance, showing no graded effects on performance in Study 1 and weak effects in Study 2. Stronger adult-like effects may only emerge with increasing age and development of other socio-cognitive skills.

Effect of Peer Influence on Exercise Behavior and Enjoyment in Recreational Runners.

Fitness professionals and popular media sources often recommend exercising with a partner to increase exercise motivation, adherence, intensity, and/or duration. Although competition with peers has been shown to enhance maximal athletic performance, experimental research examining the impact of peer influence on submaximal exercise behavior in adults is limited. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of the presence of familiar and unfamiliar peers, vs. running alone, on recreational runners' voluntary running duration, distance, intensity, liking (i.e., enjoyment), and ratings of perceived exertion (RPEs). Recreational runners (n = 12 males, n = 12 females) completed 3 experimental trials, each under a different social condition, in a randomized order. Each trial consisted of self-paced running for a duration voluntarily determined by the participant. The 3 social conditions were running alone, with a sex- and fitness-matched familiar peer, or with a sex- and fitness-matched unfamiliar peer. A wrist-worn global positioning system was used to record running duration, distance, and average speed. Liking and RPE were assessed at the end of each trial. Mixed model regression analysis showed no significant effects of social condition (p ≥ 0.40) for any of the dependent variables. The presence of a familiar or unfamiliar peer did not alter recreational runners' running behavior, liking, or perceived exertion during submaximal exercise. However, exercising with others may have other benefits (e.g., reduced attrition) not examined herein.

Infant twins’ social interactions with caregivers and same-age siblings

The study of twin behavior offers the opportunity to study differential patterns of social and communicative interactions in a context where the adult partner and same-age peer are equally familiar. We investigated the development of social engagement, communicative gestures, and imitation in 7- to 25-month-old twins. Twin dyads (N=20 pairs) participated in 10-min, semi-structured play sessions, with the mother seated in a chair completing paperwork for half the session, and on the floor with her children for the other half. Overall, twins engaged more with their mothers than with their siblings: they showed objects and imitated speech and object use more frequently when interacting with their mothers than with their siblings. When the mother was otherwise engaged, the twins played with toys separately, observed each other's toy play, or were unengaged. These results demonstrate that adult scaffolding of social interactions supports increased communicative bids even in a context where both familiar peers and adults are available as communicative partners.

Does a peer model’s task proficiency influence children’s solution choice and innovation?

The current study investigated whether 4- to 6-year-old children’s task solution choice was influenced by the past proficiency of familiar peer models and the children’s personal prior task experience. Peer past proficiency was established through behavioral assessments of interactions with novel tasks alongside peer and teacher predictions of each child’s proficiency. Based on these assessments, one peer model with high past proficiency and one age-, sex-, dominance-, and popularity-matched peer model with lower past proficiency were trained to remove a capsule using alternative solutions from a three-solution artificial fruit task. Video demonstrations of the models were shown to children after they had either a personal successful interaction or no interaction with the task. In general, there was not a strong bias toward the high past-proficiency model, perhaps due to a motivation to acquire multiple methods and the salience of other transmission biases. However, there was some evidence of a model-based past-proficiency bias; when the high past-proficiency peer matched the participants’ original solution, there was increased use of that solution, whereas if the high past-proficiency peer demonstrated an alternative solution, there was increased use of the alternative social solution and novel solutions. Thus, model proficiency influenced innovation.

The Effect of Peer Influence on Exercise Behavior and Enjoyment in Recreational Runners

Fitness professionals and popular media sources often recommend exercising with a partner to increase exercise motivation, adherence, intensity and/or duration. While competition has been shown to enhance maximal athletic performance, experimental research examining the impact of peer influence on submaximal exercise behavior in adults is limited. A more comprehensive empirical understanding of how exercising with others may affect exercise behavior and/or liking (i.e., enjoyment) could lead to more effective recommendations regarding this practice. PURPOSE: To determine the effects of the presence of familiar and unfamiliar peers, versus running alone, on recreational runners’ voluntary running duration, distance, intensity, liking (i.e., enjoyment) and ratings of perceived exertion (RPE). METHODS: Recreational runners (n = 12 male, n = 12 female) completed three experimental trials, each under a different social condition, in a randomized order. Each trial consisted of self-paced running for a duration voluntarily determined by the participant. The three social conditions were: running alone, with a sex and fitness matched familiar peer, or with a sex and fitness matched unfamiliar peer. A wrist-worn global positioning system (GPS) was used to record running duration, distance, and average speed. Liking and RPE were assessed at the end of each trial. RESULTS: Mixed model regression analysis showed that women (55.4±20.7 min, 10.0±3.9 km) ran for a longer duration (p=0.001) and distance (p=0.003) than men (40.0±11.1 min, 7.58±1.95 km) across all conditions, while men (11.5±1.36 km·hr-1, 13.3±1.8) ran faster (p=0.001) and reported higher RPE (p=0.018) than women (10.6±0.50 km·hr-1, 12.4±1.46) across all conditions. There were no significant main or interaction effects of social condition (p≥0.40) for any of the dependent variables. CONCLUSION: The presence of a familiar or unfamiliar peer did not affect recreational runners’ running behavior, liking or perceived exertion during a single submaximal exercise session. However, exercising with others may have other benefits (e.g., reduced attrition) not examined herein.

Does Product Familiarity Matter for Participation?

Household access to financial products is often conditioned on previous use. However, banning access when learning is possible may be discriminatory or counter-productive. The ‘experiment’ of German reunification (exogenously) offered to East Germans unconditional access to (exogenously) unfamiliar capitalist products. Controlling for characteristics, East Germans participated immediately, were as likely to use unfamiliar risky securities as West Germans, and more likely to use consumer debt, without signs of regret. Our results suggest that mistakes of unfamiliar households can be prevented by a knowledgeable and well-incentivized financial sector and by interaction with familiar peers. This implies that regulation should refocus on the financial sector rather than on prohibiting individuals to gain familiarity with financial products.

Social Interactions With Familiar and Unfamiliar Peers in Chinese Children: Relations With Social, School, and Psychological Adjustment

This study examined how interactions with familiar and unfamiliar peers were associated with social, school, and psychological adjustment in Chinese children. A sample of children ( N = 256, 104 boys and 152 girls, M age = 11 years, ranging from 9 to 13 years) engaged in free play sessions in quartets consisting of 2 pairs of familiar children. Information on the relative proportion of time spent interacting with familiar, unfamiliar, and mixed peers was obtained from videotaped observations. Data on social (e.g., leadership, victimization), school (e.g., school competence, learning problems), and psychological (e.g., perceived self-worth, depression) adjustment were collected from multiple sources including teacher ratings, self-reports, and school records. The results showed that interaction with familiar peers was positively associated with social and school competence and negatively associated with social, behavioral, and learning problems. Interaction with mixed familiar and unfamiliar peers was positively associated with indexes of psychological adjustment and negatively associated with psychological problems. In addition, interaction with unfamiliar peers was infrequent and not associated with adjustment or problems. The results indicate that social interactions with different types of peers may reflect different aspects of competence among Chinese children.

Grades and rank: Impacts of non-financial incentives on test performance

How does effort respond to being graded and ranked? This paper examines the effects of non-financial incentives on test performance. We conduct a randomized field experiment on more than a thousand sixth graders in Swedish primary schools. Extrinsic non-financial incentives play an important role in motivating highly skilled students to exert more effort. We find significant differences in test scores between the intrinsically motivated control group and three of four extrinsically motivated treatment groups. The only treatment not increasing test performance is criterion-based grading on an A–F scale, which is the typical grading method. Test performance is significantly higher if employing rank-based grading or giving students a symbolic reward. The motivational strengths of the non-financial incentives differ across the test score distribution, across the skill distribution, with peer familiarity, and with respect to gender. Boys are only motivated by rank-based incentives, while girls are also motivated by receiving a symbolic reward. Rank-based grading and symbolic rewards tend to crowd out intrinsic motivation for students with low skills, while girls also respond less to rank-based incentives if tested with less familiar peers.

Adolescent and adult male rats habituate to repeated isolation, but only adolescents sensitize to partner unfamiliarity

We investigated whether adolescent male rats show less habituation of corticosterone release than adult male rats to acute vs repeated (16) daily one hour episodes of isolation stress, as well as the role of partner familiarity during recovery on social behavior, plasma corticosterone, and Zif268 expression in brain regions. Adolescents spent more time in social contact than did adults during the initial days of the repeated stress procedures, but both adolescents and adults that returned to an unfamiliar peer after isolation had higher social activity than rats returned to a familiar peer (p=0.002) or undisturbed control rats (p<0.001). Both ages showed evidence of habituation, with reduced corticosterone response to repeated than acute isolation (p=0.01). Adolescents, however, showed sensitized corticosterone release to repeated compared with an acute pairing with an unfamiliar peer during recovery (p=0.03), a difference not found in adults. Consistent with habituation of corticosterone release, the repeated isolation groups had lower Zif268 immunoreactive cell counts in the paraventricular nucleus (p<0.001) and in the arcuate nucleus (p=0.002) than did the acute groups, and adolescents had higher Zif268 immunoreactive cell counts in the paraventricular nucleus than did adults during the recovery period (p<0.001), irrespective of stress history and partner familiarity. Partner familiarity had only modest effects on Zif268 immunoreactivity, and experimental effects on plasma testosterone concentrations were only in adults. The results highlight social and endocrine factors that may underlie the greater vulnerability of the adolescent period of development.

Aspects of Girls’ Friendships: Practice Implications for Internalizing Problems

Children’s friendship quality is a particularly important risk or protective factor for internalizing problems and loneliness. Past research indicates that relationship satisfaction is related to perceived similarity; however, it is unclear whether this relation is seen in girls’ friendship quality and whether this relation is significant over and above internalizing problems and loneliness. To improve our understanding of the unique relation between girls’ perceived similarity to unfamiliar and familiar peers and friendship quality. 116 girls aged 9–11 completed self-report questionnaires; we examined unique relations of girls’ perceived similarity to expected friendship quality with three hypothetical unfamiliar girls (prosocial, withdrawn/depressed, and aggressive) and perceived friendship quality with a nominated friend. Girls’ perceived similarity to all three unfamiliar girls was related to higher expected positive friendship quality, but it was only related to expected negative friendship quality for the unfamiliar aggressive girl. Girls’ perceived similarity to her nominated friend was uniquely related to perceived positive but not negative friendship quality. Dyadic loneliness was inversely related to girls’ perceived positive friendship quality with her nominated friend. Depression and dyadic loneliness were both positively related to girls’ perceived negative friendship quality with her nominated friend. Girls’ perceived similarity to familiar and unfamiliar peers is uniquely related to friendship quality. Training, prevention, and intervention programs targeting internalizing problems, loneliness, and social problems could benefit from incorporating this information.

The vacuum shouts back: postpublication peer review on social media.

Social media has created new pathways for postpublication peer review, which regularly leads to corrections. Such online discussions are often resisted by authors and editors, however, and efforts to formalize postpublication peer review have not yet resonated with scientific communities.

Peer Exclusion is Linked to Inhibition with Familiar but not Unfamiliar Peers at Two Years of Age

This study examined the extent that inhibition among familiar peers was related to inhibition among unfamiliar peers versus exclusion by familiar peers at 2 years of age. Peer inhibition at 2 years of age was assessed by both mothers and teachers on versions of the Behavioral Inhibition Questionnaire and the Preschool Play Behavior Scale (N = 141 children, 53% girls) that were adapted such that each item was posed separately regarding familiar versus unfamiliar peers. A subset of participants (n = 82) were also observed during free‐play with familiar childcare classmates at 30 months using the Peer Interaction Observation System – Early Childhood. There was no significant relation between children exhibiting extreme levels of inhibition with familiar versus unfamiliar peers across informants. Substantial numbers of children demonstrated inhibition with familiar but not unfamiliar peers (18%), with unfamiliar but not familiar peers (10%), or with neither familiar nor familiar peers (69%). In contrast, few children exhibited inhibition with both familiar and unfamiliar peers (3%). Observed peer exclusion among familiar childcare peers was systematically positively correlated with the display of inhibition among familiar childcare peers but not unfamiliar peers across informants. These findings suggest that proximal relational learning processes may have more impact than inhibited temperament on inhibition among familiar peers at 2 years of age. However, the concurrent correlational nature of this study does not provide evidence about the direction of effect. Additionally, in the future, it will be important to conduct observations of children's interactions with both familiar and unfamiliar peers. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.