Peer acceptance and rejection through the eyes of youth: pupillary, eyetracking and ecological data from the Chatroom Interact task

Abstract

We developed an ecologically valid virtual peer interaction paradigm--the Chatroom Interact Task in which 60 pre-adolescents and adolescents (ages 9-17 years) were led to believe that they were interacting with other youth in a simulated internet chatroom. Youth received rejection and acceptance feedback from virtual peers. Findings revealed increased pupil dilation, an index of increased activity in cognitive and affective processing regions of the brain, to rejection compared to acceptance trials, which was greater for older youth. Data from a cell-phone Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) protocol completed following the task indicated that increased pupillary reactivity to rejection trials was associated with lower feelings of social connectedness with peers in daily life. Eyetracking analyses revealed attentional biases toward acceptance feedback and away from rejection feedback. Biases toward acceptance feedback were stronger for older youth. Avoidance of rejection feedback was strongest among youth with increased pupillary reactivity to rejection, even in the seconds leading up to and following rejection feedback. These findings suggest that adolescents are sensitive to rejection feedback and seek to anticipate and avoid attending to rejection stimuli. Furthermore, the salience of social rejection and acceptance feedback appears to increase during adolescence.

Figures

Fig. 1

Depiction of an example same gender trial on the Chatroom Interact Task.

Fig. 2

Pupillary response to rejection vs acceptance trials on the Chatroom Interact Task. Statistically significant t-tests are highlighted along the x-axis. Underlined area along the x-axis shows the length of statistically significant continguous t-tests exceeding the contiguity threshold.

Fig. 3

Correlation waveform and scatterplot showing relation between pupillary response to rejection on the Chatroom Interact Task and youths’ age. Underlined area along the x-axis shows the length of statistically significant continguous t-tests exceeding the contiguity threshold.

Fig. 4

Differences in pupillary response to rejection vs acceptance trials based on rater gender. Regions of statistically significant differences are highlighted along the x-axis. Underlined area along the x-axis shows the length of statistically significant continguous t-tests exceeding the contiguity threshold.

Fig. 5

Correlation waveform and scatterplot showing relation of pupillary response to rejection on the Chatroom Interact Task to youths’ feelings of social connectedness with peers in cell-phone EMA protocol conducted over a 5-day period outside the lab. Underlined area along the x-axis shows the length of statistically significant continguous t-tests exceeding the contiguity threshold.

Fig. 6

Horizontal and vertical gaze patterns in response to rejection and acceptance on the Chatroom Interact Task. Underlined area along the x-axis shows the length of statistically significant continguous t-tests exceeding the contiguity threshold.

Fig. 7

Heat map showing eye position for 1.5 s following feedback.

Fig. 8

Average correlation between pupillary response and horizontal gaze position across a trial. Strength of correlation at each point depicted by color. Clusters of correlated samples meeting criteria for Type 1 error control are outlined in black. The diagonal line represents correlations among pupillary response and eye gaze at the same point in time. Off diagonal samples reveal correlations between pupil dilation and eyetracking leading up to and following feedback.