Generality and Context-Specificity of Executive Function in College Students with Bullying Victimization Experiences

Although previous research has confirmed an association between bullying victimization and executive function (EF) impairments, the long-term trajectory of these deficits remains controversial, specifically whether they persist as permanent scars into adulthood or are subject to a degree of neuroplastic recovery through brain maturation and subsequent learning experiences. Moreover, prior studies have largely focused on relatively stable, cross-task deficits, with limited examination of whether EF performance is dynamically modulated by victimization-related contextual cues. Accordingly, the present study examined the differences in EF performance among individuals with a history of bullying victimization under both general processing conditions and context-induced conditions through two experiments. Experiment 1a and Experiment 2a assessed general inhibitory control (IC) and working memory (WM) using the classic Stroop and N-back paradigms, respectively. Experiment 1b and Experiment 2b introduced victimization-related contextual cues into these paradigms to examine context-dependent alterations in cognitive control. The results showed that, under general conditions, the victimization group exhibited significantly longer reaction times (RTs) than the control group in both the Stroop and N-back tasks, indicating less efficient general cognitive processing. Further analyses revealed distinct patterns under context-specific conditions: in the adapted Stroop paradigm, the victimization group showed relatively faster RTs in victimization-related contexts, suggesting context-dependent differences in interference control; in contrast, in the WM task, RTs were prolonged in victimization-related contexts, suggesting greater contextual interference during WM processing. In conclusion, bullying victimization is associated not only with general differences in EF performance among college students but also with context-dependent alterations in cognitive processing. These findings highlight the context-dependent effects of bullying-related cues on EF and provide behavioral evidence that bullying victimization is associated with alterations in cognitive control processes, with potential implications for developing targeted intervention strategies.