Characteristics Of Impaired Executive Attention In Problematic Social Media User

With the rapid development of internet technology and smartphones,social media of all kinds have emerged.The variety and portability of social media makes individuals easily dependent on them.Excessive use of social media can lead to problematic social media use,which can have a negative impact on an individual’s physical and mental health and social functioning.An important characteristic of individuals with Internet-related addiction is a reduced ability to perceive and inhibit the salience of social media-related stimuli.However,the question of whether inhibitory control during attentional processing is impaired in problematic social media users has been under debate.Therefore,examining the inhibitory control characteristics of problematic social media users’ attentional processing can contribute to a scientific understanding of the regularity of problematic social media use.Inhibitory control at the attentional level,or executive attention,refers to an individual’s ability to suppress distractions in attentional processing so that they can better perform it.The characteristics of impaired executive attention in problematic social media users still need to be further explored.The present study focuses on three key issues:(1)what are the characteristics of impaired executive attention in the attentional processing of instrumental stimuli,social media stimuli and social feedback cues by problematic social media users;(2)whether the specific stimulus affects the general executive attention level of problematic social media users;and(3)the ERP characteristics of impaired executive attention to problematic social media users.Thus,this paper conducted four studies comprising seven experiments.Study 1,examined general executive attention impairment characteristics of problematic social media users.It consisted of Experiment 1,using the Arrow Flanker task,in which subjects were asked to judge the direction of the arrow in the centre of the screen.The experimental design was a 2(groups: problematic,non-problematic)× 2(conditions: incongruent,congruent)mixed experimental design.The dependent variables were participants’ response time and correctness,and Flanker effect at response time.The results of the experiment found no significant difference in the level of executive attention els of undergraduate students in the problematic social media use group compared to those in the non-problematic group.Study 2,examines the instrumental stimulus specificity of impaired executive attention among problematic social media users.It consisted of Experiment 2 and Experiment 3.Experiment 2 explored the impaired executive attention characteristics of problematic social media users during processing of instrumental stimuli.An adapted Flanker task with smartphone images(tool-specific)and book images(non-tool-specific)as experimental stimuli were used,and participants were asked to determine whether the image in the center of the screen was a smartphone.The experimental design was a 2(groups: problematic,non-problematic)× 3(conditions: congruent,incongruent stimulus of the same type,incongruent stimulus of the different type)× 2(target stimulus: tool-specific,non-tool-specific)mixed experimental design.The dependent variables were participants’ response time and correctness.The results of the experiment found that participants with problematic social media use did not differ significantly from the non-problematic group when responding to smartphone images as distracting stimulus.Experiment 3,explored impaired characteristics of general executive attention in problematic social media users when smartphone-related images were the task background.An adapted Arrow Flanker task was used,with screened smartphone images and book images as the task background,and participants were asked to judge the direction of the arrow in the centre of the screen.The experimental design was a 2(groups: problematic,non-problematic)× 2(conditions: incongruent,congruent)× 2(background: tool-specific,non-tool-specific)mixed experimental design.The dependent variables were participants’ response time and correctness,and the Flanker effect at response time.The results of the experiment found that smartphone background did not affect the general executive attention of undergraduate students with problematic social media use.Study 3,examines the specificity of social media stimuli for impaired executive attention in problematic social media users.It consisted of Experiment 4 and Experiment 5.Experiment 4 explored the impaired executive attention characteristics of problematic social media users as they processed social media stimuli.An adapted Flanker task with screened images related to social media apps and non-social media apps,and participants were asked to determine whether the center image on the screen was a social media app.The experimental design was a 2(groups: problematic,non-problematic)× 3(conditions: congruent,incongruent stimulus of the same type,incongruent stimulus of the different type)× 2(target stimulus: social media,non-social media)mixed experimental design.The dependent variables were participants’ response time,correctness and the mean wave amplitude and latency of ERP N1,P2,N2,P3.The results of the experiment found that the severity of problematic social media use among undergraduate students was significantly and positively related to response time in the presence of social media stimuli,mean N2 component amplitude in the incongruent condition,and that participants in the problematic group had longer response times and smaller mean N2 component amplitude in the incogruent condition than those in the non-problem group.Experiment 5,explored impaired characteristics of general executive attention in problematic social media users in a adapted Arrow Flanker task,with screened social media images and nonsocial media images as the task background,and participants were asked to judge the direction of the arrow in the center of the screen.The experimental design was a 2(groups: problematic,nonproblematic)× 2(conditions: incongruent,congruent)× 2(background: social media,non-social media)mixed experimental design.The dependent variables were participants’ response time and correctness,and Flanker effect at response time.The results of the experiment found that social media background did not affect the general executive attention level of undergraduate students with problematic social media use.Study 4,examines the effect of social feedback cues in social media on the level of executive attention of problematic social media users when used as task goals or backgrounds.It consisted of Experiment 6 and Experiment 7.Experiment 6 explored the impaired executive attention characteristics of problematic social media users during attentional processing of social feedback cues in social media.An adapted Flanker task with images related to social media with/without social feedback cues was used as the experimental stimulus,and participants were asked to judge whether the central image of the screen had social feedback cues.The experimental design was a 2(groups: problematic,nonproblematic)× 2(conditions: incongruent,congruent)× 2(social feedback cues: present,absent)mixed experimental design.The dependent variables were participants’ response time,correctness and the mean wave amplitude and latency of ERP N1,P2,N2,P3.The experimental results found that regardless of social feedback cues,undergraduate students with problematic social media use showed impaired executive attention and that social feedback cues had an effect on the attentional processing of problematic social media users.Experiment 7 explored the effect of social media stimuli with social feedback cues as backgrounds on the general executive attention levels of problematic social media users.An adapted Arrow Flanker task was used,with screened social media images with social feedback cues and social media images without social feedback cues as the task background,and participants were asked to judge the direction of the central arrow.The experimental design was a 2(groups:problematic,non-problematic)× 2(conditions: incongruent,congruent)× 2(background: with social feedback cues,without social feedback cues)mixed experimental design.The dependent variables were participants’ response time and correctness,and Flanker effect at response time.The results of the experiment found that social feedback cues did not affect the general executive attention of problematic social media users.Under the experimental conditions of these experiments,the following conclusions were obtained.First,general executive attention was not impaired in problematic social media users,the background did not affect their level of general executive attention,and executive attention was impaired in problematic social media users during attentional processing of social media-related stimuli,but not during attentional processing of tool-specific stimuli or other stimuli.Second,there is a strong relationship between the severity of an individual’s problematic social media use and the background to which their executive attention to social media stimuli is impaired.Third,the I-PACE model has limitations in explaining the behavioural characteristics of problematic social media users,and the impaired inhibitory control characteristics of problematic social media users differ from those of other types of Internet addicts.