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Poster Session C: Friday, August 15, 2:00 – 5:00 pm, de Brug & E‑Hall

Interplay of social and self interests during learning in early adolescence

Cong Wang¹, Natalie Melville, Clare Hogan, Victoria Tredinnick, Nanda Sankarasubramanian, Pearl H. Chiu, Brooks Casas; ¹Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Presenter: Cong Wang

Navigating social environments requires individuals to consider how their actions impact both themselves and others, and to dynamically adjust expectations and actions in ways that satisfy social goals. Yet, little is known about how self-interest and social interests interact to shape learning in early adolescence—a time of significant social development. Here, we studied how 13- and 14-year-olds learn from outcomes relevant to both themselves and others. Compared with self-regarding learning, learning from social outcomes was generally weaker but exhibited substantial individual differences. These variations were captured by an error-driven learning process incorporating individual-level social preferences, supported by a social preference-weighted prediction error encoded in frontoparietal network. These data suggest a neurocomputational mechanism by which early adolescents reconcile multiple, and sometimes competing, social motives during learning.

Topic Area: Reward, Value & Social Decision Making

Extended Abstract: Full Text PDF