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ERIC Number: EJ1481717
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Sep
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1363-755X
EISSN: EISSN-1467-7687
Available Date: 2025-08-08
Effects of Early Adversity and War Trauma on Learning under Uncertainty
Matteo Lisi1; Julia Michalek2; Kristin Hadfield3,4; Rana Dajani5; Isabelle Mareschal6
Developmental Science, v28 n5 e70049 2025
In uncertain situations, individuals rely on prior experiences of successes and failures to guide future decisions. Research has shown that children exposed to early adversity, such as abuse, can exhibit atypical behaviours in probabilistic learning tasks compared to peers without such experiences, which may have long-term behavioural consequences. Building on these findings, our study investigates whether children exposed to war-related trauma and forced displacement show similar alterations in decision-making under uncertainty. We conducted a series of experiments involving tasks that required learning and decision-making under uncertainty (e.g., multi-armed bandits and foraging) in Amman, Jordan, comparing Syrian refugee children (ages 7-12) with age-matched Jordanian non-refugee peers. Although our first experiment suggested less exploratory behaviour in refugee children, results from subsequent tasks revealed a pattern better explained by heightened sensitivity to rewards. This interpretation suggests that refugee children's decision-making is driven by a stronger response to rewards across different contexts. Such heightened reward sensitivity may influence how these children approach problem-solving and decision-making, potentially leading to detrimental outcomes in environments that benefit from greater exploration and the maintenance of a stable strategy.
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www-wiley-com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Jordan
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Data File: URL: https://osf.io/t5cuf/
Author Affiliations: 1Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, UK; 2Wolfson Institute of Population Health, London, UK; 3School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland; 4Trinity Centre for Global Health, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland; 5Biology and Biotechnology Department, The Hashemite University in Zarqa, Zarqa, Jordan; 6Centre for Brain and Behaviour, School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, London, UK