Question
Teens have a reputation for making some not-so-smart decisions. Researchers have blamed those poor decisions on the immaturity of a teen’s prefrontal cortex. That is the part of the brain involved in making plans and decisions. But scientists now find the answer may be simpler: the allure of rewards. Rewards, even small ones, entice teens more than they do adults.
And, perhaps surprisingly, teens tend to continue doing things they once found rewarding, even after the actual payoff is long gone. Both findings come from a new study by researchers at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.
Psychologist Zachary Roper and his team worked with two groups of volunteers: 13- to 16-year olds and 20- to 35-year-old adults. Each volunteer had to play a game of sorts. During a training phase, a computer displayed six circles, each a different color. The players had to find the red or green circle. These targets had either a horizontal or vertical line inside. The remaining circles had lines at other angles. When the participant found the correct target, they had to press one of two keys on a keyboard. One key would report they had found the vertical line. The other reported finding a horizontal line.
When a volunteer hit the right key, the screen flashed the amount of the reward they had earned. For some volunteers, green circles provided a large (10-cent) reward and red circles provided a small (2-cent) reward. For other volunteers, the amounts were reversed, with red circles worth more. All other colors had no reward.
By the end of this training, volunteers had learned the value of each color. But they weren’t aware that they had, notes Iowa’s Jatin Vaidya. When the scientists asked the players about the value of red versus green circles, both teens and adults had no awareness that a circle’s color had any effect on how much they had earned during any given trial.
After this training ended, it was time to begin testing in earnest. The scientists informed the volunteers they had a new target. Each had to report the orientation of the line inside a blue diamond. Again, groups of six symbols appeared on a computer screen. Only one was a diamond. The other five were still circles. In some trials, one of those circles was red or green. In other trials, there were no red or green circles.
The recruits were told to answer as quickly as possible. And for this phase of the experiment, no additional money would be earned.
The researchers now measured how long it took people to find the diamond and record their answers.
When no red or green circles were among the onscreen options, both adults and teens responded quickly. But when a red or green circle showed up, both groups initially took a bit longer. Adults, though, quickly stopped paying attention to the colored circles. Their response times sped up.
Teens reacted differently. They took longer to respond whenever a red or green circle showed up. Their response times never sped up. Their attention still was drawn to the previously valued circles — even though the shapes no longer brought any reward. Clearly, the red and green circles were distracting teens from their objective.
Roper’s team reported the findings September 10 in Psychological Science.
“The study demonstrates that the attention of adolescents is especially drawn to rewarding information,” says Brian Anderson. A psychologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., he was not involved with the study. These data may help explain why teens engage in risky behavior, he says.
Some behaviors, such as texting or using social media, trigger the brain’s reward system. Once the teenage brain has linked a behavior to that reward, it continues to seek the reward again and again. That’s why teens are likely to opt for the reward of social media when they should be studying. Or why they respond to texts while driving.
How can someone overcome their brain’s attempts to distract? Vaidya suggests physically removing distractions whenever possible. Shut down the phone when driving or disconnect from Wi-Fi while doing homework. When distractions are not readily available, it will be easier to focus attention on the things that matter most. Like arriving home safely. he claim the author makes about distracted teenage behaviors and evaluate whether the evidence used to support this claim is sufficient.
And, perhaps surprisingly, teens tend to continue doing things they once found rewarding, even after the actual payoff is long gone. Both findings come from a new study by researchers at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.
Psychologist Zachary Roper and his team worked with two groups of volunteers: 13- to 16-year olds and 20- to 35-year-old adults. Each volunteer had to play a game of sorts. During a training phase, a computer displayed six circles, each a different color. The players had to find the red or green circle. These targets had either a horizontal or vertical line inside. The remaining circles had lines at other angles. When the participant found the correct target, they had to press one of two keys on a keyboard. One key would report they had found the vertical line. The other reported finding a horizontal line.
When a volunteer hit the right key, the screen flashed the amount of the reward they had earned. For some volunteers, green circles provided a large (10-cent) reward and red circles provided a small (2-cent) reward. For other volunteers, the amounts were reversed, with red circles worth more. All other colors had no reward.
By the end of this training, volunteers had learned the value of each color. But they weren’t aware that they had, notes Iowa’s Jatin Vaidya. When the scientists asked the players about the value of red versus green circles, both teens and adults had no awareness that a circle’s color had any effect on how much they had earned during any given trial.
After this training ended, it was time to begin testing in earnest. The scientists informed the volunteers they had a new target. Each had to report the orientation of the line inside a blue diamond. Again, groups of six symbols appeared on a computer screen. Only one was a diamond. The other five were still circles. In some trials, one of those circles was red or green. In other trials, there were no red or green circles.
The recruits were told to answer as quickly as possible. And for this phase of the experiment, no additional money would be earned.
The researchers now measured how long it took people to find the diamond and record their answers.
When no red or green circles were among the onscreen options, both adults and teens responded quickly. But when a red or green circle showed up, both groups initially took a bit longer. Adults, though, quickly stopped paying attention to the colored circles. Their response times sped up.
Teens reacted differently. They took longer to respond whenever a red or green circle showed up. Their response times never sped up. Their attention still was drawn to the previously valued circles — even though the shapes no longer brought any reward. Clearly, the red and green circles were distracting teens from their objective.
Roper’s team reported the findings September 10 in Psychological Science.
“The study demonstrates that the attention of adolescents is especially drawn to rewarding information,” says Brian Anderson. A psychologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., he was not involved with the study. These data may help explain why teens engage in risky behavior, he says.
Some behaviors, such as texting or using social media, trigger the brain’s reward system. Once the teenage brain has linked a behavior to that reward, it continues to seek the reward again and again. That’s why teens are likely to opt for the reward of social media when they should be studying. Or why they respond to texts while driving.
How can someone overcome their brain’s attempts to distract? Vaidya suggests physically removing distractions whenever possible. Shut down the phone when driving or disconnect from Wi-Fi while doing homework. When distractions are not readily available, it will be easier to focus attention on the things that matter most. Like arriving home safely. he claim the author makes about distracted teenage behaviors and evaluate whether the evidence used to support this claim is sufficient.
Answers
GPT-4o mini
The author claims that the tendency for teenagers to engage in distracting behaviors, such as texting or using social media, is driven by the way their brains prioritize rewards. This claim is supported by evidence from a study that shows teens are particularly susceptible to distractions associated with previously rewarding stimuli—specifically, the red and green circles in the experiment. Unlike adults, whose response times improved when distracted by these circles, teens consistently took longer to respond, indicating a persistent attraction to those rewarding cues despite a lack of actual rewards in the task at hand.
Evaluating the evidence, we see that the study explicitly tests the responsiveness of both teens and adults to stimuli that had previously been associated with rewards. The differentiating factor here is the lack of awareness in both age groups regarding the value of the previously rewarded stimuli during a different phase of the experiment. The teens’ continued distraction suggests a neurological predisposition to prioritize reward-associated information, even when the context has changed and those rewards are no longer applicable.
The results underscore a key aspect of adolescent behavior: the brain’s reward system exhibits heightened sensitivity to cues linked to past rewards. This aligns well with the rationale behind distracting behaviors such as multitasking with phones or social media, as the activities trigger this reward system and lead to continued engagement despite potential drawbacks, such as less focus on studies or road safety.
In terms of sufficiency, the evidence from the study provides a solid foundation for the claim. It demonstrates a behavioral pattern among teens in controlled conditions that aligns with real-world scenarios of distraction driven by the allure of rewards. The suggestion from researchers to minimize distractions as a means to foster focus is also practical advice based on the observed behaviors.
However, while the evidence supports the claim, it could be strengthened by additional data linking these findings to everyday situations or behaviors in real-world contexts beyond the lab. Understanding how this distractibility translates into broader risky behaviors (like texting while driving) could provide a more comprehensive picture of adolescent decision-making processes.
Overall, the evidence used does strongly support the claim that teenagers’ behaviors, especially in potentially risky situations, can be attributed to their brain’s attraction to the reward system and the distractions it causes.
Evaluating the evidence, we see that the study explicitly tests the responsiveness of both teens and adults to stimuli that had previously been associated with rewards. The differentiating factor here is the lack of awareness in both age groups regarding the value of the previously rewarded stimuli during a different phase of the experiment. The teens’ continued distraction suggests a neurological predisposition to prioritize reward-associated information, even when the context has changed and those rewards are no longer applicable.
The results underscore a key aspect of adolescent behavior: the brain’s reward system exhibits heightened sensitivity to cues linked to past rewards. This aligns well with the rationale behind distracting behaviors such as multitasking with phones or social media, as the activities trigger this reward system and lead to continued engagement despite potential drawbacks, such as less focus on studies or road safety.
In terms of sufficiency, the evidence from the study provides a solid foundation for the claim. It demonstrates a behavioral pattern among teens in controlled conditions that aligns with real-world scenarios of distraction driven by the allure of rewards. The suggestion from researchers to minimize distractions as a means to foster focus is also practical advice based on the observed behaviors.
However, while the evidence supports the claim, it could be strengthened by additional data linking these findings to everyday situations or behaviors in real-world contexts beyond the lab. Understanding how this distractibility translates into broader risky behaviors (like texting while driving) could provide a more comprehensive picture of adolescent decision-making processes.
Overall, the evidence used does strongly support the claim that teenagers’ behaviors, especially in potentially risky situations, can be attributed to their brain’s attraction to the reward system and the distractions it causes.