DOI: 10.5061/dryad.h44j0zprc
title: A human working memory advantage for social network information

description: Humans are innately social. We live in large, complex, and dynamic social
 groups. In order to navigate these networks, we must rely on a set of
 social-cognitive processes, including social working memory (WM). Here, we
 designed a novel network memory task to study WM for social versus
 non-social network information across 241 participants (18-65 years) in a
 tightly controlled, preregistered study. We show that humans demonstrate a
 WM advantage for social, relative to non-social, network information. We
 also observed a self-relevant positivity bias, but an “other” negativity
 bias. These findings are interpreted in the context of an evolutionary
 need to belong to one’s social group, to identify risks to one’s social
 safety, and to appropriately track one’s social status within a complex
 network of social relationships.
description: The dataset was collected using Prolific and was processed using
 R. 
description: # A human working memory advantage for social network information **Data
 files** | **File Name** | **Description** | |
 :----------------------------- |
 :-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Networks.final | data file accounting for condition and valence (used for hypothesis 2 testing) | | Networks.final.load | data file accounting for condition and load (used for load analyses) | | Networks.final.novalence | data file accounting for condition only (used for hypothesis 1 testing) | | Networks.valence.load.combined | data file accounting for condition, load and valence (used for additional load analyses requested by reviewers) |   **Variables** | **Variable Name** | **Description** | **Values** | | :----------------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------------ | :-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Age | participant age (years) | NA | | affective\_control | participant level of affective control as measured by the digit span task | NA | | Condition | network task condition (3-level) | social self; social other; social non (i.e., non-social) | | Condition.2.level | network task condition (2-level) | social; non-social | | Correct | total correct trials on the network task | NA | | DASS\_Anxiety | total score on the DASS-21 anxiety subscale | NA | | DASS\_Depression | total score on the DASS-21 depression subscale | NA | | Depression\_Cutoff | cut-off score for DASS-21 depression subscale (high vs low) | 0 = low depression (13 or below); 1 = high depression (&gt; 13) | | Depression\_Score | all cut-off scores for DASS-21 depression subscale | 0 = normal (0-9), 1 = mild (10-13), 2 = moderate (14-20), 3 = severe (21-27), 4 = extremely severe (28+) | | ID | participant ID | NA | | Load | cognitive load for network task trials | low (networks made up of 3 people/cities); high (networks made up of 4 people/cities) | | Neg\_Affect | total score on the negative affect items of the PANAS | NA | | PercentCorrect | percentage correct on the network task | NA | | Pos\_Affect | total score on the positive affect items of the PANAS | NA | | RT | average reaction time on correct trials of the network task (ms) | NA | | SSS\_total | total score on the O2S3 scale | NA | | Valence | valence for network task trials | negative (people were not friends/flights were not running); positive (people were friends/flights were running |