Abstract Little is known about how social network associations are tracked in cognition during adolescence, when social networks change in size and complexity. In 2023, 123 ethnically diverse adolescents and emerging adults (13–24 years; 52.9% female; 68.3% White; 18.7% Asian) completed a task measuring working memory (WM) differences for social and nonsocial network information. Additionally, this sample was combined with an existing sample recruited in the same year (N = 241, 18–65 years; 59.3% female; 64.7% White; 16.6% Asian) to investigate age-related differences in social and nonsocial WM performance. A WM advantage for social over nonsocial networks was observed across adolescence, emerging adulthood, and adulthood, especially for self-relevant social information (R2 = 0.01–0.02). Age was also positively associated with WM performance. Findings provide insights into how individuals learn about social relationships in adolescence and emerging adulthood, the successful formation of which has lasting impacts on wellbeing.
Grunewald et al. (2026) studied this question.