The effect of ostracism on prospective memory in problem solving

Successfully generating plans, while seemingly straightforward, can be riddled with external and internal interferences. One important possible source of interference is ostracism, which has been consistently shown to induce negative psychological effects in various executive functions. Therefore, understanding the impact of unforeseen ostracism on planning is vital to a broad spectrum of the population, from university students, whose self-esteem partly derives from social acceptance, to healthcare professionals, whose performance oftentimes relies on peer feedback. An individual's ability to navigate through intended actions is an evaluation of their prospective memory (PM), which is traditionally divided into three consecutive phases: (1) planning, (2) recall, and (3) performance. This study primarily focused on the impacts of ostracism via Cyberball simulation on the first two phases of PM in the Tower of London (TOL), an assessment of executive functioning designed specifically to test planning ability during problem solving. Using Bayesian analysis, the study found substantial evidence of there being no difference in planning success between social exclusion and inclusion conditions. However, an individual's sex had significant effects on their planning success at baseline (i.e., inclusion condition). Surprisingly, there was no difference in performance between male participants and female participants when excluded, suggesting that ostracism may play an equalizing role. In addition, male participants both listed more moves at planning and recalled more moves, which led to no difference between sexes in terms of recall percentage. This study underscores a need to consider various factors such as sex and differing perceptions of ostracism when analyzing and addressing problem solving performance.