1: Social learning in childhood Flashcards
what is social cognition
complex set of mental processes relating to understanding, interpreting and predicting other peoples behaviour
what does social cognition allow humans to form
form social relationships
what is social learning
the process of acquiring knowledge and skills through social interactions, such as observing and imitating the behaviors of others
what is a neonate
a new born in first month of life
what is mimicry and how is it often reinforced
replication of a models actions in the absence of any insight into why the actions are effective or what goal they serve
- mimicry doe snot have tp be voluntary
- one form of social learning
what are mirror neuron’s and were were they discovered
- specific neuron’s that activate when you see someone perform an action
and when you perform it yourself - mirror neuron’s activate when you perform an action and watch someone else performing one
- discovered at an Italian university in Macaque monkeys
what role do mirror neuron’s play and where are they found
- play a role in social cognition, imitating learning and empathy
- found in frontal and premotor cortex in the brain
example of mirror neurons irl
a professor in a lecture shows a video of someone smiling warmly. those watching may smile back by instinct and not a conscious decision.
- happens because mirror neurons activate, simulating the observed smile and associated positive emotional state in their own brains
pros for neonatal mimicry
- critics agree that babies show strong, early preferences for social stimuli
- preference for face-like simtuli one show bias for looking at faces
what part of the brain is active in neonates when processing faces
EEG shows that the ventral-occipital cortex is active
Buiatti et al (2019)
- Babies brain responds more to images resembling faces compared to other patterns.
- occipital temporal regions become active when newborns see upright face-like images
Reid et al (2019)
- preferences for facelike stimuli occur in utero
- even though babies have never seen faces before
- LED lights through uterine wall and moved across abdomen. See if foetus tracked lights
- face-like stimuli which is top heavy vs unsymettrical which is bottom heavy
what is babies bias when they are born
- find still faces distressing
- they expect and respond to social contingent interactions
- babies bias to expect caretaker to interact with them
-stone faced adult- baby will cy
what is neonatal mimicry a product of
intuitive communicative processes allowing babies to encourage interaction from parents
- babies cannot mimic everything
Nagy et al (2019)- neonatal mimicry
tests babies who had just been born
- 8 different actions including tongue sticking out and looking up
- babies aged between 0-3 days produced several matching behaviours, in particular tongue protrusions
cons for neonatal mimicry and research
- too close to nativism (babies have a built in hardwire)- which downplays the importance
- how reliably neonates replicated actions
- Ansfield (1996)- found only constant evidence for tongue protrusion
what does tongue protrusion suggest
sign of arousal not mimicry- pen or outage may look like a nipple. Babies thought they were getting fed
what did Oostenbrook et al (2016) find
- no evidence of neonatal mimicry or response specificity
- no evidence if neonatal mimicry actually works
final pro and con of neonatal mimicry
highly disputed amongst researchers
pro- fits well with findings even in utero
conside- tongue protrusion (most widely demonstrated mimicked response).
- not response specific and seems to be demonstrated in a random, careless way
testing infants requirements
- appropriate situtaions
- clear limits to researchers degrees of freedom
-defined demonstration and response periods - short testing phases
- test in correct state e.g. not drowsy or dozing
- newborns can only perform certain types of actions
what is social mimicry
unconscious copying
- people mimic people they like and being mimicked leads you to liklikng your copier
meltzoff and moore (1997) imitation
- if newborn infants could imitate facial expressions and gestures
-12 to 21 day old infants - various expressions and gestures - infants mimicked both suggesting imitation present from a young age
children mimicking ages and who they are most likely to imitate- study t back uo
VanSchaik and Hunnius (2016)
-3 year olds spontaneously mimic videos of adults demonstrating actions regardless of who they are
- 4-6 year olds preferentially mimic in group adults and want to play with them more
suggests younger children focus on action rather than person- imiataion of them may be drive more by curiosity than group identity
older children begin to show preferences for people who belong to their in groups (language, culture etc). This Is development of social cognition
how do children being to imitate and emulate
as they cognitively develop- voluntarily copy other people’s behaviour
what is emulation
copying someones intended goal- using different methods to achieve this - doesn’t copy acti9ons
(need to understand why the actions matter)
what is imitation
copying goal in a specific way they used to produce same goal, even if it is unnecessary
what is the ratchet effect
transmission of information across generations prevents the loss of valuable knowledge
example of ratchet affect
1st gen - putting potatoes on fire cooks it
2nd gen knows putting potatoes on a fire will cook it- they can cut potatoes and make chips
how does imitation work in ratchet effect
imitation allows you to transmit knowledge from previous generations, even if you don’t understand precise mechanisms involved in such knowledge
Want and Harris (2002)
children more likely to imitate actions exactly- focus on social learning rather than the outcome
- imitation crucial for learning and understanding others intentions
McGuigan et al (2017)
- 3-4y capable of inventing solutions to complicated puzzle boxes and transmitting answers to peers
- efficient at sharing knowledge
what is over imitation
- form of social learning where individuals copy all actions displayed by a model to achieve a goal, even when actions make no sense to copy
- model will do something deliberately inefficient and someone will still copy
- adults over imitate more than children
Horner and Whiten (2005) over imitation in children
-model would demonstrate tapping ontop of box then opening bottom to receive reward
- children around 5 copied these actions to get reward even though the action was irrelevant
Whiten et al (2016)
- adults overimiate even when they are not being tested and have no direct interaction with the model
Edinburgh zoo- confederate trying to open artificial box with irrelevant actions
-visitors are secretly filmed
- visitors would watch model and when the model left they would reproduce the same irrelevant actions as the model
influences of model factors
in over imitation
5-6 year olds over imitate high status models e.g. teachers
more likely to overimiate a member of in group
influences of action factors in over imitation
2-5y prefer over-imitating actions using tools
7-8y less likely to over imitate in-group member who is rude to na out group member- younger children don’t care
influences of learner factors in over imitation
- children more eliely to overimiate in a playful group context
why do we over imitate?
- please people
- copy who we like
- normative theories- we copy because we believe the model is showing us the proper way to perform a task, explict-implict rules- we don’t expect them to lie
how does over imitation relate to theory of mind
overimiation tasks you have to figure out what you are supposed to do and what the experimenter wants you to do
- engaging in the practice of theory of mind
what is theory of mind
understanding other people as social agents with subjective mental states like beliefs and desires
- understanding people don’t know what you do
when does theory of mind start to emerge
- around 9 months- infants notice a models Goals and spontaneously engage
- they understand the purpose behind an action
- infants around 9m expect people to help others achieve a goal when they are stuck. they will look longer if they don’t help
however 9m cannot understand that people can have conflicting viewpoints of same situation as theory of mind isn’t fully developed
infants and goals
- 9m- frustrated with a model when they refuse to give them a toy vs when they are unable
- 15m complete actions demonstrated by a model
- one and a half- 3y distinguish between jokes and mistakes. will copy less if a person says whoops and will copy more if a person laughs
infants and helping
Reschke et al (2020)
-18m respond to emotional cues made by model when performing an action
helping starts to develop just before second year of life
- 18m spontaneously help others reach their goals
shows they understand a mistake has been made and will attempt to help them fix it
when does theory of mind fully emerge
- develops more at 4-5 allowing children to better navigate social interactions
- shift from goals to intentions - beginning of developing a mentalistic framework
sallyanne task
- 2 dolls, sally and anne
- sally has basket and Anne has box
sally puts a marble in her basket and leaves - anne moves marble to her box
- child is asked where will sally look for her marble
- child should say In Sallys basket as she doesn’t know its been moved
correct= theory of mind
incorrect= limited
4-5y typically pass
3y and under= often fail- egocentrism
- autistic individuals often fail as well
what is meta representation and the age it emerges
- age 4
- ability to understand that other people construct their own knowledge of the world from own viewpoint
- ability to form a mental representation of another representative
- key component of theory of mind
example of meta representation in children
for example: if a child sees a doll holding a toy banana and pretending its a phone, child must understand that doll is treating the banana as a representation of something else
rakoczy (2022)
meta representtaion
- person A can see its raining but person b cannot = difference
- Person A wants t to rain but person b doesn’t =incompatibly
- person A knows it’s not raining but person B thinks it is and brings umbrella= Misinterpretation
ToM and lying
- requires ability to anticipate what another believes and manipulate their belief to achieve a goal
- higher ToM, more likely to maintain a lie
adults and recursion
adults can embed peoples perspectives into existing mental representatives
- I think that you believe that he thinks she wants
- adults shown to be able to track up to 7 levels of recursion
DeLilo and ferguson (2023)
- taking other peoples perspectives is natural, effortless, automatic= RELIES ON MIRROR NEURONS
- using info about other peoples mental states= more complex reasoning, considering goals, consequences= MORE EFFORTFUL AND VOLUNTARY
when does perspective taking level off
- levels off at 20-30
- egocentric errors become more common with age
-partially related to executive function decline
