Investigating The Impact Of Female Personal Relative Deprivation On Cognitive Control

Although the number of poor people in China is decreasing year by year,the income gap of Chinese residents is widening year by year,the polarization between the rich and the poor,and the excessive concentration of social wealth have caused more and more people to breed subjective "relative deprivation".Women's income has always been lower than that of men.The Global Gender Gap Report 2020 released by the World Economic Forum this year shows that it will take 257 years for the gap between women and men to be completely eliminated in the economic field.This income gap makes women more likely to have subjective "relative deprivation"-individuals feel that they are at a disadvantage after comparing with reference individuals,and then experience a subjective cognition and emotional experience of negative emotions such as anger and dissatisfaction.However,this psychological sense of relative deprivation can easily lead to social unrest and pose a great threat to economic development.In order to reduce the negative results caused by the female relative deprivation caused by the income gap,it is necessary for us to fully understand the negative effects of the relative deprivation and provide reference for the corresponding countermeasures.Previous studies have found that personal relative deprivation(PRD)can lead to depression,smoking behavior,risk-taking behavior and aggressive behavior and other studies have found that depression and smoking behavior of women during pregnancy will harm the health of fetus.Depression,smoking behavior,risk-taking behavior and aggressive behavior are generally related to the impairment of cognitive control:(1)The failure to suppress negative stimuli is closely related to depression;(2)The failure to suppress implicit preference for tobacco is related to smoking behavior;(3)The appearance of impulsive behavior may also be related to the impairment of cognitive control ability.However,the mechanism of the influence of PRD on cognitive control is still unclear,especially in female groups.If we can find out the influence of female PRD on cognitive control,it will help us better understand the influence of PRD on women's physical and mental health and behavior and its cognitive mechanism.At the same time,we can provide theoretical basis for correcting the bad behavior of relatively deprived individuals from a cognitive perspective,so as to improve the bad behavior of relatively deprived individuals through cognitive training and other methods.Cognitive control is not a single function which comprises three key components: inhibition,working memory and cognitive flexibility.In addition,the dual-mechanism of control framework put forward that cognitive control operates via temporal dynamics between proactive and reactive control.Therefore,the present study used seven experiments to explore the impact of PRD on inhibition(response inhibition and selective attention),working memory(capacity and attentional filtering ability)and cognitive flexibility,based on which we further explore the impact of PRD on the temporal dynamics between proactive and reactive control and the mental mechanisms underlying this process.Study 1 used two experiments to explore the impact of female PRD on inhibition.Specifically,Experiment 1 explored the impact of female PRD on response inhibition which used event-related potential(ERP)technology to explore the impact of female PRD on response inhibition measured by a go/no-go task.46 female subjects were randomly assigned to PRD group or non-PRD group and were asked to complete the go/no-go task.Results indicated that individuals in PRD group exhibited larger N2 effect but smaller P3 effect,which showed that individuals in PRD group invest more attention in the detection of conflict response,but less in the actual conscious inhibition of impulsive responses.Thus,the impact of PRD on different cognitive components in response inhibition was different.Experiment 2 explored the impact of female PRD on selective attention which used ERP technology to explore the impact of PRD on selective attention measured by an additional smgleton paradigm.50 female subjects were randomly assigned to PRD group or non-PRD group and were asked to complete the additional smgleton paradigm.In the additional smgleton paradigm task target stimulus and distractor stimulus were stimultaneously presented on the screen and subjects were asked to only judge the orientation of the target stimulus.Results indicated that(1)individuals in PRD group performed worse(i.e.longer response time);(2)individuals in PRD group exhibited weaker Pd amplitude(the index of distractor suppression)but similar Nt amplitude(the index of target enhancement).These results indicated that PRD impaires selective attention.More specifically,PRD only impaired distractor suppression but not target enhancement.Study 2 used two experiments to explore the impact of female PRD on working memory.Specifically,Experiment 3 explored the impact of female PRD on working memory capacity.In experiment 3a,the influence of PRD on the working memory capacity of body motion was investigated.45 female subjects were randomly assigned to PRD or non-PRD group and were asked to complete the change detection task.The results showed that working memory capacity for body motion of relatively deprived individuals is significantly higher than that of non-relatively deprived individuals.Experiment 3b investigated the influence of PRD on working memory capacity for faces.46 female subjects were randomly assigned to PRD or non-PRD group and were asked to complete the change detection task.The results showed that the working memory capacity for neutral faces of relatively deprived individuals is significantly higher than that of non-relatively deprived individuals.Experiment 3c investigated the influence of PRD on working memory capacity for color squares.46 female subjects were randomly assigned to PRD group or non-PRD group and were asked to complete the lateralized change detection task.Results indicated that not deprived individuals' working memory capacity(K=5)was higher than that of relatively deprived individuals(K=3),which indicated that PRD may impair individuals' storage capacity for color squares.The Experiment 3 results showed that the female PRD will weaken the working memory capacity of general information,but will improve the working memory capacity of neutral social information(body motion and face).Experiment 4 explored the impact of PRD on attentional filtering ability.Experiment 4a used ERP technology to explore the impact of PRD on attentional filtering ability measured by a lateralized change detection task with distractor(s).50 female subjects were randomly IX assigned to PRD group or non-PRD group and were asked to complete the lateralized change detection task with distractor(s).The results showed that the CDA amplitude(EEG index reflecting the amount of information stored in working memory)under the condition of memorizing two red target lines excluding two green interference lines was significantly weaker than that induced by memorizing four red target lines in the nonPRD group;There was no significant difference between CDA amplitude intensity induced by memorizing two red target lines and excluding two green interference lines and CDA amplitude intensity induced by memorizing four red target lines in the PRD group.The results showed that the individuals in non-PRD group can filter the green interference lines,while the individuals in PRD group cannot filter the green interference lines,indicating that the PRD will weaken the attention filtering ability.Experiment 4b investigated the influence of PRD on emotional information attention filtering ability.39 female subjects were randomly assigned to the PRD or the non-PRD group and were asked to complete the change detection task.The results showed that PRD weakens the working memory capacity for shape appearing in the negative background,which indicated that the relatively deprived individuals' attentional filtering ability for negative irrelevant stimuli may decrease.Study 3 aimed to explore the impact of female PRD on cognitive flexibility.Specifically,Experiment 5 explored the impact of female PRD on cognitive flexibility which used ERP technology to explore the impact of PRD on cognitive flexibility measured by a cued task-switching paradigm.45 female subjects were randomly assigned to PRD group or non-PRD group and were asked to complete the cued task-switching paradigm.Results indicated that(1)individuals in PRD group exhibited higher error switch cost than individuals in non-PRD group;(2)individuals in PRD group showed weaker P3 b amplitude(reflecting the ability of working memory updating)than individuals in non-PRD group.The CNV amplitude(reflecting action preparation ability)of relatively deprived individuals was maiginally significantly lower than that of non-relatively deprived individuals;There was no significant difference in the amplitude between the two groups in N2(reflecting the ability of response selection)and P3a(reflecting the ability of cognitive preparation).The results showed that female PRD will damage the individual's cognitive flexibility,which was manifested in the damage to the individual's ability to working memory updating and action preparing,but had no significant effect on the ability of response selection and cognitive preparation.The results of the Study 1,Study 2 and Study 3 showed that the PRD had different effects on different cognitive components of cognitive control: the PRD will damage the response inhibition,interference inhibition,working memory and clue processing,but it will not damage the ability of conflict monitoring and target processing.Through observation,we find that response inhibition,interference inhibition,working memory and clue processing ability are more inclined to proactive control processing mode,while conflict monitoring and target processing are more inclined to reactive control processing mode.Based on this,we speculate that PRD may have different effects on proactive and reactive control processing mode,and in the fourth study,we investigated the influence of PRD on proactive control and reactive control processing mode and its psychological mechanism.Specifically,Experiment 6 explored the impact of female PRD on proactive and reactive control which used high time resolution ERP technology to explore the impact of PRD on the temporal dynamics between proactive and reactive control.44 female subjects were randomly assigned to PRD group or nonPRD group and were asked to complete the AX-CPT.Results indicated that:(1)individuals in PRD group make more errors on BX trials than individuals in non-PRD group;(2)individuals in PRD group exhibited weaker cue-P3 b amplitude and CNV amplitude(group difference in CNV amplitude was statiscally marginally significant).There was no significant group difference in N2 and P3 a amplitude.These results indicated that PRD might impair proactive control but not reactive control.Experiment 7 explored the reason why female PRD weaken proactive control which used ERP technology to further explore how PRD impair proactive control,specifically,through impairing motivation or ability.50 female subjects were randomly assigned to PRD group or non-PRD group and were asked to complete a Cue-Flanker task.Results indicated that when the advantage of adopting proactive control was extremely obvious(Proactive Encouraged condition)individuals in PRD group were willing to adopt proactive control;but when the advantage of adopting proactive control was not obvious(Proactive Possible condition)individuals in PRD group were not willing to adopt proactive control.These results indicated that the reason why the relatively deprived individuals exhibited impaired proactive control is not because their own ability is damaged,but because the lack of motivation leads to the impaired proactive control.To sum up,through four studies,the influence of female PRD on cognitive control is systematically investigated,and the psychological mechanism of female PRD on cognitive control is preliminarily explored.It is found that female PRD will weaken proactive control processing mode,but has no significant influence on reactive control processing mode.Moreover,the reason why relatively deprived female individuals show weak proactive control is not because their ability is damaged,but because they lack the motivation to use their proactive control ability.This study has certain theoretical and practical significance.First of all,this study laid a certain research foundation for us to deeply understand the cognitive characteristics of relatively deprived dividuals.Secondly,it is found that psychological subjective sense of relative deprivation will also have a negative impact on cognitive control.This result warns us that in organizational management,we should not only pay attention to the fairness of distribution,but also prevent the generation of subjective relative deprivation.Finally,it provides a theoretical basis for improving individual psychological and behavioral problems caused by the gap between the rich and the poor from the perspective of cognitive training.However,our findings are mainly applicable to female individuals,and whether they can be extended to male individuals remains to be further studied.