You never answered the question as to whether the 4 applications were in the /Applications folder, but I surmise they were (would be nice to get accurate feedback). For the two (non-Apple) apps I updated through the App Store, it showed a progress bar as the updates were downloading.
To find out whether the updates you wanted actually downloaded, you can look in 2 places:
1. Your browser should have a "Downloads" menu item someplace (in Google Chrome, it is contained within the Window menu).
2. You could either launch the application and see what version it is, or click once on the application, and go a "Get Info" on it. It should show if there was any update.