The Impact of Social Exclusion on Prospective Memory in Children With Hearing Impairments

Abstract

Two studies were conducted to investigate the impact of social exclusion on the prospective memory of children with hearing impairments. Study 1, based on questionnaire results, revealed that hearing-impaired children in the exclusion group exhibited lower prospective memory performance than those in the nonexclusion group. Study 2, derived from experimental findings, showed that: (1) hearing-impaired children in the exclusion group scored lower on time-based prospective memory tasks compared to the nonexclusion group, with no significant difference observed in event-based prospective memory performance. (2) The performance of hearing-impaired children in the exclusion group on ongoing tasks was consistently lower than that of the nonexclusion group. The findings suggest that (1) social exclusion has a limited impact on event-based prospective memory, albeit at the cost of reduced accuracy in ongoing tasks. (2) Social exclusion has a pronounced effect on time-based prospective memory, and this cannot be compensated for by sacrificing the accuracy of ongoing tasks. These results imply that special educators should be vigilant and consider the possibility of social exclusion when hearing-impaired children frequently exhibit failures in time-based prospective memory.