Chapter 7 Flashcards
1
Q
social cognition
A
one’s cognitions (thoughts, inferences) about people and social situations
2
Q
social-cognitive development
A
development of one’s cognitions about people and social situations
3
Q
Inanimate vs. Animate objects
A
- Infants (at least as young as 7 months) show surprise when inanimate objects move on their own
- Recognize that self-produced motion is characteristic of living things
- can be categorized into domain-specific laws (core knowledge: inanimate objects = contact principle (naive physics module); animate objects = action at a distance (naive psychology module)
4
Q
theory of mind (TOM)
A
- Involves the ability to infer and reason about the mind or mental states
- Eg. Emotions, desires, goals, intentions, knowledge, thoughts, beliefs
- In one’s self or in someone else
- Aka: “mind”-reading (not ESP), naïve psych, folk psych, mental state attribution, social perspective taking, role-taking, mentalizing
- essential for social interaction
- Prerequisite is to distinguish things with and without mental states
- previously though that TOM emerged late in development (~4 yrs), but research now suggests very young children actually do have limited understanding of mental states
5
Q
why do we need TOM?
A
- To interpret other’s actions -> Understanding what a person is thinking, feeling, believes, etc. Helps us interpret their behaviour (ex. Sarah’s missing dog and the squirrel in the shed)
- To predict other’s actions -> Understanding what a person is thinking, feeling, believes, etc. Helps us predict their behaviour (within limits)
- Successful communication -> requires appreciating what the other person knows, doesn’t know, and how knowledge can be acquired (ex. Teaching)
- Selective social learning -> knowing who knows more or who knows what (ex. Mom knows more about putting on makeup than dad)
- To manipulate others’ thoughts and actions (Ex. Deception, tricks, and surprise)
6
Q
false belief
A
- Argued to be the best test for concept of mind
- Requires understanding that the mind represents the world -> not a copy of the world; can be inaccurate or incomplete
- And the understanding that people can misrepresent reality –> people can believe things that are simply not true
- ex. displacement tasks, unexpected contents task, appearance-reality task
7
Q
displacement tasks
A
- AKA: Sally-Ann or Maxi Tasks
- test false beliefs
- young children (3-4) don’t understand that Sally might have a false belief about where her ball is located after Ann moves it
8
Q
unexpected contents task
A
- AKA: Smarties Task
- test false beliefs
- young children say they think Smarties will be in the Smarties box, but then they open it up and see pencils. Then they say that they knew all along it was pencils. They also don’t understand that their friend might have a false belief about what’s in the Smarties box (pencils)
9
Q
appearance-reality task
A
- tests false beliefs
- when you show kids a rock-like object that’s actually a sponge, they think it’s a rock. Then you let them touch it and discover that it’s actually a painted sponge. Then they’ll tell you that they knew it was a sponge all along, and that their friend who hasn’t felt the “rock” yet will also think it’s a sponge
10
Q
classic belief task results
A
- 4 year-olds succeed at this task, 3 year-olds fail
- this indicates that children younger than four may not understand that people can hold beliefs that are false
- however, alternative explanations are possible
11
Q
alternative explanations for false belief task results
A
- Radical shift theory: conceptual change view -> children prior to the age of four are unable to attribute belief states to themselves and others; lack concept of false beliefs – kids have a “copy-theory” of the world (the mind = reality)
- Processing demands theory: More continuous view of development -> Young children fail these tasks because they lack the attentional, mnemonic, linguistic, or other processing resources (ex. curse of knowledge)
12
Q
curse of knowledge
A
- a difficulty appreciating a more naïve perspective as the result of being biased by one’s own knowledge
- Ex. Trivia questions, car salespeople, anagram study -> if you give people (including adults) anagrams with answers, they’ll predict it’ll take people who don’t have the answers a lot less time to figure out the answer than it actually does
- Ex. Getting people to predict probability of Obama winning election, then ask them again after he wins to remember what their prediction was -> they literally can’t remember, even with cash incentives to be honest -> they say their prediction was higher than it was -> This could be part of why children can’t predict what their friend will think is inside the box, and give the opposite answer of what they thought was in the box
13
Q
autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
A
- Fits under core knowledge viewpoint
- DSM-IV definition – a “Triad of Impairments”: 1) impaired communication 2) Impaired social cognition 3) Restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behaviours, interests, and activities
- Difficulties fall along a spectrum ranging from very mild to very severe
- Can never be cured/outgrown
14
Q
ASD facts
A
- Prevalence: anywhere from 1 in 4,000 to 1 in 68
- Rates have increased lately, not because there are more cases of autism but because we’re getting better at detecting it
- 5 times more common in boys
- 40% of autistic children also have cognitive delays
- Diagnosis can happen around age 2-3, but on average happen between 4-6 (higher-functioning ASD is usually diagnosed later as the problems associated with it aren’t visible until later in life when there are more peer interactions)
- Affects every race and SES
- A small percentage are autistic savants = profound capabilities
15
Q
Asperger’s syndrome
A
- higher-functioning ASD
- No clinically significant delays in language or cognition
- Deficits seem specific to social interaction
- Asperger’s Syndrome not classified within the DSM-V (classified within ASD)
16
Q
1st impairment: communication
A
- Up to 40% are mute
- Those who speak show unusual patterns:
- Echolalia = repeating words or phrases
- Pronoun reversal
- Monotone voice, lack of emotion when speaking
- Pragmatic deficits (eg. Don’t understand sarcasm or jokes)
- Misuse of words (eg. “hot” for stove and only stove)
17
Q
2nd impairment: social functioning
A
- Little eye-contact
- Low social-emotional reciprocity: not as “cozy, cuddly” as other children
- Less awareness of social norms (eg. Acceptable behaviour)
- Typically prefer playing by themselves (being social comes with a lot of unpredictability)
- Lack of pointing and gestures (protoimperative and protodeclarative pointing)
- The MOST reliable sign of autism is a problem with social functioning
18
Q
2 types of pointing
A
- Protoimperative: you need something, so you point at it (ex. Pointing at a spoon to eat with)
- Protodeclarative pointing: pointing at something novel/something you notice (ex. Airplane in the sky)
19
Q
3rd impairment: restrictive behaviour
A
- Unusual behaviour patterns (eg. Emotional outbursts)
- Repetitive actions and insistence on routines
- Perseveration/stimming = repetitive actions
- Sensory sensitivities (enhanced/hypersensitive and/or reduced/hyposensitive)
- Special interests and preoccupations (ex. Numbers, science, reading, etc.)
- Attachment to unusual objects
- Lack pretend play
20
Q
hypersensitive vs. hyposensitive
A
- Hypersensitive: acutely aware of sensory input, don’t need a lot to feel something (ex. Small hugs are more than enough)
- Hyposensitive: under-aware of sensory input, need a lot of sensory input to feel something (ex. Need bear hugs)
21
Q
what contributes to autism?
A
- Psychodynamic theory: bad parenting – no!
- Vaccines – no! (Timing of autism diagnosis often coincides with timing of vaccinations, which makes it appear as if an effect is there)
- Advanced paternal age – yes!
- Genetics – yes! (~77% concordance in monozygotic twins, higher rate in siblings (~20% also autistic), multiple chromosomes involved (polygenic), 10% have other genetic conditions)
- Environmental triggers – yes! (Exposure to microbes? Toxins? thaliomide? Some unknown factors?)
- Some evidence that 3rd week of pregnancy is critical (eg. Ear placement) -> autism is happening really early on in pregnancy (so it’s NOT caused by things that happen later in life like bad parents or vaccines)
22
Q
Common Theories of Mechanisms underlying autism characteristics
A
- Central coherence
- Extreme Male Brain
- Theory of Mind Impairments
23
Q
Central coherance
A
- Embedded figures task, upside down puzzles
- Global vs. Local focus
- Children with autism do better on embedded figures tasks because they have a local focus**
- Individuals with ASD have a weak central coherence** -> too focused on the parts, not able to look at the whole pictures
24
Q
Extreme male brain
A
- Levels of testosterone, early puberty**
- “very male” cognitive/emotional profile
- Morphology (eg. Finger length)
- Better at skills that males tend to do better on (‘systemizing’ skills: math, science, computers) and worse at skills that females tend to do better on (‘empathizing’ skills: verbal, social-emotional, reading others)** -> Systemizing skills are more predictable than empathizing skills
