Being observed by a friend or an experimenter affects relational reasoning accuracy in adolescents but not in adults¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r2 · q3 · i2 medium
Currency · newest study 2015 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i2 A significant three-way interaction between social condition, task-level and age group shows the audience effect on relational reasoning accuracy depends on age, whereas adults' accuracy was unaffected by social condition. → Wolf L.K. 2015

Evidence¶

Wolf L.K. 2015¶

Wolf L.K., Bazargani N., Kilford E.J., Dumontheil I., Blakemore S.-J. (2015). The audience effect in adolescence depends on who's looking over your shoulder. Journal of Adolescence, 43, 5–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2015.05.003

q3 · i2 · causal · r2

Mixed-design ANOVA on accuracy data from 24 younger adolescents, 20 older adolescents and 18 adult females performing a relational reasoning task under alone, friend-present and experimenter-present conditions. The three-way interaction was significant (ηp2 = 0.09); "The adult group showed neither a main effect of social condition nor an interaction between social condition and task-level".

"There was a significant three-way interaction between social condition, task-level and age group, (F(4,118) = 2.91, p = 0.024, ηp2 = 0.09), which was followed up by separate social condition by task-level repeated-measures ANOVAs for each age group. The adult group showed neither a main effect of social condition nor an interaction between social condition and task-level (ps > 0.4, Fig. 2)."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• No behavioural Audience × Age group interaction: the accuracy decrement was comparable in adolescents and adults — reports the opposite
• A peer audience decreases accuracy in the complex relational integration condition in both adolescents and adults — reports the opposite
• Older adolescents respond faster when observed by an experimenter than by a friend or when alone, while social condition does not affect younger adolescents' or adults' response times — related
• Older adolescents (14.9–17.8 years) show lower relational reasoning accuracy when observed by a friend than by an experimenter, across task difficulty levels — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Younger adolescents (10.6–14.2 years) show lower relational reasoning accuracy when observed by a friend than by an experimenter only in low-relational trials — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Across all age groups, relational reasoning accuracy is lower in the friend-present condition than in the experimenter-present condition overall — a broader claim this one bears on
• The study found no evidence of age differences in relational reasoning performance, possibly due to design choices maximising sensitivity to audience effects — related
• Inductive reasoning develops in three main levels between ages 6 and 12, from single-dimension generalization to theoretical supposition — related