Investigating Adolescents’ Execution Speed of Social, Dimensional, and Temporal Comparisons

• Temporal comparisons are faster to execute than social comparisons. • Dimensional comparisons are faster to execute than social comparisons. • Temporal comparisons are faster to execute than dimensional comparisons. • Non-specific comparisons are faster to execute than specific comparisons. Social, dimensional, and temporal comparisons influence students’ academic self-concepts to different degrees. Typically, social comparison effects are stronger than dimensional comparison effects, which in turn are stronger than temporal comparison effects. A possible explanation for these different comparison effects could be differences in the cognitive processes involved in social, dimensional, and temporal comparisons. To gain insight into this issue, the present study addresses the execution speed of social, dimensional, and temporal comparisons using a response time experiment, in which N = 209 students (9th and 10th grade) were asked to evaluate their achievements in various subjects in relation to social, dimensional, and temporal comparison standards. Response times to social, dimensional, and temporal comparisons were compared using a repeated measures ANOVA and were found to be shortest for temporal comparisons and longest for social comparisons. Moreover, they were shorter when comparisons used non-specific comparison standards (i.e., multiple people/subjects/points in time) compared to specific comparison standards (i.e., single person/subject/point in time). Accordingly, temporal comparisons appear to facilitate the fastest execution speed, followed by dimensional comparisons, and then social comparisons. Furthermore, non-specific comparisons appear to facilitate a faster execution speed than specific comparisons.