Developmental Flashcards
1
Q
What are three key ingredients of pro social behaviour?
A
-altruism
-empathy
-morality
2
Q
what is altruism?
A
A genuine concern for the welfare of others and willingness to act on that concern
3
Q
What is empathy?
A
A person’s ability to experience the emotions of other people.
4
Q
What is morality?
A
The ability to distinguish right from wrong, and (sometimes) act on that distinction. Experience pride in virtuous conduct, but shame over acts that violate standards
5
Q
what are three key moral principles?
A
-avoid hurting others (supress/avoid aggression)
-prosocial concern (altruism via sharing, comforting, and helping others)
-personal commitment to abide by rules (comply with social rules of conduct, learn right from wrong)
6
Q
What three dimensions is moral development considered in?
A
Affective component – emotions
Cognitive component – reasoning
* Stressed by cognitive-developmental theorists (e.g. Piaget; Kohlberg).
* Cognitive growth and social experiences improve rules/norms understanding
Behavioural component – action
7
Q
what does Piaget’s theory of moral development study?
A
Studied children’s’ understanding of (1) respect for rules and (2) concepts of justice
8
Q
Describe the three key stages in Piaget’s theory of moral development:
A
Premoral Period: Pre-school age
Little concern or awareness of rules. Make up
own rules.
Stage 1: Heteronomous Morality- Age 5-10 years “Under the rule of another.” Strong respect for rules, cannot be altered. Authority figures. Actions judged by consequences, not intent. Punishment for its own sake, not tailored to act.
Stage 2:
Autonomous Morality- By age 10-11
Social rules are arbitrary agreements that can be challenged, changed, and sometimes violated. Intent is important. Tailored punishment. Assume morality is fully developed.
9
Q
what is a core criticism of Piaget’s Theory?
A
Underestimates the competence of
children to understand intentionality.
Argues capability to apply intentionality to moral judgements only developed in later childhood (10 yrs >).
But research by Killen et al. (2011) shows that young children
aged 3-7 can:
* Assign more blame when act was intentional than accidental.
* Rated intentional acts as ‘more bad’ than accidental acts
10
Q
what is intentionality?
A
Intentionality is a core aspect of making moral judgements.
ie. Theory of mind, move away from egocentrism, other perspectives
11
Q
What does MoToM stand for?
A
morally-relevant theory of mind test
12
Q
How does MoToM compare to Piaget’s stages of development?
A
Ability to interpret intentionality shown in younger children than Piaget proposed.
Suggests that young children CAN
distinguish between intentions and outcomes and apply those to moral judgement
13
Q
How are MoToM scenarios different to Piaget’s scenarios?
A
in MoToM scenarios there is a clear victim and a potential transgressor. There are also justification questions to assess level of harm perceived
14
Q
What was the focus ages for Kohlberg’s Theory of moral development?
A
expands on Piaget’s theory, beyond childhood ages 10-16
15
Q
Which choice task did Kohlberg use to investigate moral development in older children?
A
Moral dilemmas requiring choice between obeying rules or disobeying rules while serving a human need. Focus on rationale used
to justify decision
16
Q
What are the three stages of Kohlberg’s moral development?
A
Pre- conventional
1. Punishment and obedience: It’s OK to do it if you don’t get caught.
2. Self-interest (egocentric): If it feels good, do it.
Conventional
3. Comply with social expectations: Moral behaviour that pleases, helps, or
approved by others.
4. Uphold Social-order: Do your duty, social rules and laws and
worth preserving.
Post- conventional
5. Social-contract: Distinction between morality and legality.
6. Individual principles of conscience: One’s own ethics, universal justice, dignity.
17
Q
What bias’ are proposed in criticism of Kohlberg’s Theory?
A
Age: not as applicable to young children
Cultural: Post-conventional morality not found to exist in some societies. Highest stages are Western ideals
Gender: Theory developed from sample of only male participants. Carol Gilligan argues different gender-typing and expectancies lead to different moral orientations
18
Q
What is aggression?
A
Defined as any form of behaviour intended
to injure or harm a living being who is
motivated to avoid such treatment
19
Q
What are two broad types of aggression?
A
- Hostile aggression – goal is to harm.
- Instrumental aggression – means to another end.
20
Q
What is the difference between Overt and relational Aggression?
A
Relational Aggression is Indirect, psycho-social, harder to observe
Overt Aggression: Direct, physical
21
Q
What are reasons suggested for 2-3 year old males being more physically and verbally aggressive than females?
A
- Rougher play with parents.
- More negative parental reaction to aggressive behaviours of daughters.
- Gender-typing of toys
22
Q
Is aggression a stable attribute?
A
- Aggressive toddlers likely to be
aggressive 5 year olds. - Aggression between 3 years and 10 years old predicts aggression and antisocial behaviour later in life.
23
Q
What drives reactive vs proactive aggression?
A
Reactive: driven by emotion.
impulsive; hostile, retaliatory aggression; high arousal; wary of others
Proactive: driven by goals.
planned or considered aggression; requires forethought and delayed behaviour; produces tangible benefits, eg. enhances self-esteem; rewarding; bullying.
24
Q
How can aggression result from immature moral reasoning?
A
Egocentric bias is pronounced:
Individual places own concerns as
central and most important.
Normal among young children but
with maturation children should shift
from ‘self-centred’ to ‘other-centred’
to take other perspectives
Self-serving ‘Cognitive distortions’:
provide justification for aggressive
behaviours
- Hostile Attribution Bias (assuming the
worst)
- Blaming others and external causes
- Minimise feelings of guilt and regret by
creating own labels and interpretations
25
Describe moral disengagement?
a process of convincing yourself that ethical
standards don’t apply to you at a certain time or in a particular context.
26
What are three ways of cognitive re framing of aggression to be morally acceptable under certain circumstances?
*Displacement: actions are dictated by a separate authority and are not one’s
own
* Diffusion: in a group setting can believe others to be equally responsible.
* Dehumanisation: victim no longer considered a person
with feelings and thoughts, seen more as an object than a living being
27
How can moral development and concepts be culturally specific ?
Children learn about morals and values from family, friends, community.
i.e. different self-concepts, emotional
expectations, and value orientations. ‘Moral identity’.
Micro (family, immediate community) and macro (region, country) levels
28
How can moral reasoning predict aggressive behaviour?
Constructed view of the world based on past experiences and own
interpretation.
More favourable attitudes to aggressive behaviour predicts actual aggressive behaviour
29
What are risk factors of aggression development?
Temperament, executive functioning, and emotion dysregulation.
* Social Information Processing (SIP)
* Coercive home environment and parenting.
30
what is temperament?
Tendency to respond in a certain way across situations.
* Considered a precursor of personality.
31
how does temperament change over the course of a person's life?
Individual differences in temperament emerge very early and remain relatively stable over time
32
what are the five major temperament attributes in babies?
Activity level, irritability, soothability, fearfulness, sociability
33
'Higher rates of mother-child conflict' is associated with what?
difficult temperament
34
Three clusters of temperament traits that raise the risk of aggression:
1. Tendency for dysregulated and negative emotional reactions (Control of anger and frustration is a major achievement in early
socialisation, by middle childhood (6-12 years). Reactive more than proactive aggression.
2. Fearlessness, daring, sensation seeking
3.Low prosociality (Less respect for rules, Less empathy or care for others, Less guilt, Proactive more than reactive)
35
Describe the study where Ostrov et al. (2023) found emotion dysregulation to be a key risk factor in reactive and proactive physical and relational aggression:
*300 children age 3-5 years in pre-school and
school, over 4 years.
* Free-play observations (trained researchers).
* Teacher ratings of: emotion dysregulation,
empathy, rules response, fearlessness & daring.
* Physiological (skin conductance, breathing-
resting state arousal).
36
What is emotion dysregulation?
inability to control and modulate emotional reactions. Especially problematic when those behaviours violate social norms
37
What is the roles of executive function (EF)?
*inhibition: restraint of motor or verbal responses.
* Working memory updating: hold and manipulate information over short periods of time.
* Shifting: alternate between mental rule states or tasks.
* Planning: goal-directed action
38
In what ways do executive functions in early childhood correlate with increased risk of aggressive behaviours?
* Difficulties regulating behaviour, especially anger and irritation.
* Physical aggression mainly; relational findings mixed.
* Reactive more than proactive aggression (Rohlf et al., 2018).
* Impulsivity, lack of ability to plan and inhibit potent responses
39
What is the importance of developing cognitive control in adolescence ?
Development of greater cognitive control in adolescence shown to protect against tendency for maladaptive anger responses
40
Anger-Induction Study (Krage 2020)
-what were the two behaviour classifications?
- what was the anger able to predict?
-Two behaviour classifications:
1. Maladaptive: venting anger, focus
on the frustrating blocks.
2. Adaptive: solution seeking
-More maladaptive anger correlated
with higher teacher ratings of physical
and relational aggression 6 months
and 2 years later.
* Also predicted problems with friends
41
why is accurate procession of social information crucial for human interaction and adequate socialization?
* understand others’ intent, emotions, messaging.
* take into account contextual factors.
* decide how to respond to them.
Problems arise when there is misunderstanding.
Social Information Processing difficulties can make it hard for certain children to find non-aggressive solutions to problems
42
Stages of Social Information Processing model:
stages 1 and 2: Expect intent was
negative (Hostile Attribution Bias)
* Search and find social cues to confirm this:
self-fulfilling cycle.
* Rapid angry response
stages 2-6: Less expectation of hostility.
* Logical assessment that
aggressive response would be most effective.
* Confident of positive outcome.
43
What factors are associated with increased hostile attribution bias?
emotionality, inadequate emotion understanding, and poor emotion regulation
ability
44
How might steps of the Social Information Processing Model be influenced by individual differences?
* Current emotional state may drive what social cues are more salient and how they are interpreted.
* Overwhelmingly strong emotions that are hard to control can impair ability to focus on alternative interpretations of and responses to a situation
45
How can a coercive home environment encourage aggression in children?
* Out of control behaviour, unruly, defiant.
* Atypical family environment.
* Social climate the child feeds into.
* Constant struggle and conflict.
* Little talk, mostly negative talk.
* Negative reinforcement maintains this environment
46
Four parenting styles:
-Authoritarian
-Authoritative
-Permissive
-Neglectful
47
Do parenting styles have a role in aggressive behaviour problems in children?
Parenting styles act as a risk or a protective factor for the development of aggressive behaviour problems in children
48
Describe the Two Dimensions of Parenting that have a role in aggression in children:
1. Parental Warmth: protective factor.
* Affection, support, and acceptance of the child’s experience and behaviour.
* Positive socio-emotional resources and role modelling.
2. Behaviour control/coercion: risk factor.
* Harsh and controlling, strict rules and punishments.
* Negative interactions promote antisocial behaviour, learned and transferred
outside the home
49
How does parental warmth promote good emotion regulation development?
Fosters trust, easier to regulate appropriately, psychological safety
50
Most frequent reason for child mental health outpatient referrals:
Aggression
51
What is conduct disorder?
Repeated, persistent patterns of antisocial,
aggressive, or defiant behaviour, worse than
normal for that age.
* More extreme and problematic as child gets older & more independent.
* Serious rule (and law) violations at home, school, community.
52
Risk factors of conduct disorder:
1. Being male
2. Living in urban environments
3. Poverty
4. Family History of conduct disorder
5. Family History of mental illness
6. Having other associated psychiatric disorders
7. Parents with an alcohol or drug addiction
8. A dysfunctional home
9. History of experiencing traumatic events
10. Being abused or neglected
53
What can parents and teachers do to support children with conduct disorder?
* Create non-aggressive environments to reduce chances for conflict.
* Reduce or eliminate anything that might reinforce aggression, eg don’t make the aggressive act rewarding in any way > proactive aggression in particular.
54
Incompatible-response technique:
* Ignore all but the most serious aggressive behaviours
* Reinforce positive acts e.g. sharing
Time-out: for more serious behaviours
* Avoids escalating conflict and
reinforcement
* Best when combined with positive
reinforcement
55
How can parents and teachers model and coach young people with conduct disorders?
* Help look for nonhostile cues to reappraise the situation.
* Help the child find alternative solutions to conflict.
* Help the child be more aware of others’ feelings; promote empathy
56
In what way can aggression interventions be effective?
*Social-cognitive competencies
* Interpersonal problem solving
* Parenting skills
* Coping with stress
* Home / school climate
57
What aggression interventions worked best according to review by Farrington et al (2017)?
-General (multi-factor) programs: best effects with those that included parenting skills training and behavioural modelling
-Family programs more successful with children under 15 years old
-In schools, universal school-wide programs worked better than small- group ones; multi-faceted worked better than targeted
-Anti-bullying programs worked better with younger children (age5-12 years) than older children.
- Start early when children are young
58
What are Overt aggression interventions focused on?
(a) Parent Management Training (PMT)
-The Family environment
(b) Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
-The Child
59
Describe Parent Management Training (PMT):
* Operant conditioning principle
* Positive reinforcement.
* Appreciates multiple interacting risk factors and pathways to childhood anger/irritability.
* PMT aims to improve family interaction patterns that maintain and support tantrums, aggression, and noncompliance.
* Mainly with parents but sometimes children are involved.
60
What is taught/suggested in Parent Management Training (PMT)?
-Identify why the child is behaving aggressively /angrily
-Communicate instructions and directions
effectively (verbal skills)
-Give praise for positive and appropriate behaviour
-Ignore maladaptive attention-seeking behaviour
-Use consistent approaches to dealing with disruptive behaviours
61
What does CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) target in children with conduce disorders?
difficulties in emotion regulation and social problem-solving
62
Where does some of the controversy stem from with Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA)?
Debate on what is ‘desired’ behaviour, eg fitting societal ‘norms'
63
How does CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) support anger control and management?
Anger Control & Management Training:
* Monitor emotional arousal.
* Cognitive reappraisal and relaxation.
* Practice socially appropriate responses.
* Can help with hostile attribution bias.
64
What us Social Skills Training (SST)?
* Based on Social learning theory (Bandura, 1973)
* Enhance social behaviours that can be used instead of aggression.
* Help develop more positive friendships with non-aggressive peers.
* Targets weak verbal skills, poor conflict resolution skills
65
What is Problem Solving skills Training (PSST)?
*Modelling.
* Role-playing.
* Positive reinforcement of appropriate behaviour.
* Teaching alternative behaviours.
* Child sessions but parents can observe and learn how to support.
* Homework to do.
66
what is the effectiveness of social skills training (SST) and Problem solving skill training (PSST)?
Both showed reduced aggression.
* Problem-solving training showed greater reduction of Hostile Attribution Bias.
* Social skills training showed greater improvement in anger control skills.
67
What are difficulties faced by people with Relational aggression issues?
* Social problem-solving.
* Emotion regulation.
* Academic.
* Predicts future psychosocial maladjustment
68
What is relational aggression?
-non-physical aggression in which one manipulates or harms another’s social standing or reputation.
-Direct (“I don’t want to be your friend”) or indirect (spreading rumours behind backs to influence others’ opinions)
-Associated with problematic friendships, rejection, depressive symptoms, and school avoidance.
69
Why might Relational aggression be complex to address?
Can be highly associated with physical aggression which makes this complex to address.
70
What are similarities between overt/physical and relational aggression?
* Hostile attribution bias.
* Favourable evaluations of aggressive solutions.
* Considerable social influence within their peer group.
* Adept at social manipulation, influential, popular within certain circles – high status.
71
Describe early childhood friendship project involving puppets (Ostrov et al., 2009):
* Classroom-based, children aged 3-5 years. 6 weeks.
* Designed to reduce both relational and physical aggression and increase prosocial
behaviours
-Puppet shows: social skills, friendships
-Weekly participatory activities to reinforce social skills. Role-playing
-Concept activities: e.g. small group art or picture books
-Reinforcement: Praise during free- play (from a puppet and adult)
72
How effective was Early Childhood Friendship Project in tackling aggression?
Large positive effects on relational aggression and moderate effects on physical aggression.
But requires larger samples.
73
What is I Can Problem Solve?
-formally called interpersonal Cognitive Problem solving (ICPS)
-evidence-based universal primary prevention program that helps children as young as four learn
-perspective taking, alternative solution thinking, consequential thinking
-a really long and intensive school-based programme
74
What was Social Aggression Prevention Programme (SAPP) designed for?
to reduce girls’ use of social aggression and increase skills in empathy, social problem solving, and prosocial behaviours
75
Who did analysis suggest that Social Aggression prevention Programme (SAPP) would be more effective for?
may be more effective for high-risk girls in
social problem solving, prosocial behaviours, and empathy.
76
Three aggression intervention design considerations:
Age-appropriate
* Verbal skills, parental / teacher involvement, report tasks, medium.
Aggression-appropriate
* Physical and relational aggression, proactive vs reactive aggression.
Community-appropriate
* Include key community individuals when designing the intervention
(teachers, counsellors, education psychologists, police officers, parents).
77
What is the role of play?
-play facilitates cognitive, social, and emotional development
-role taking and mature social judgements
-conflict management
78
How does play important for theory of mind?
-role taking highlights different perspectives of self and others
-sharing
-compromise
-Increase emotional sensitivity to self and others
79
Why are friends/peers important for child development?
*Friends and peers are an important part of
socialisation.
* Provide the social context in which self-concept,
identity, and appreciation of others develop
80
How do peer influences differ at different stages?
– Infancy & toddlerhood: Limited influence (mostly family /caregivers).
– Childhood: Main interaction with peers is through play; still less important than family.
– Teenagers: Growing influence of peers.
81
What do Piaget's stages of play reflect?
Reflect developing capacity to think symbolically
82
Piaget's three stages of play...
1) Functional play: sensorimotor (up to age three), Nonsymbolic practice games
2)Symbolic play: preoperational (3-6 years), make believe and pretend games
3)Games: Concrete Operational (7 years plus), games with rules
83
Describe Functional Play:
* Repeating motor routines.
* Throwing, opening, closing, filling, tipping
84
Describe Symbolic Play:
* Pretend play
* Change the function of objects using imagination.
* Role-playing.
85
Importance of symbolic play:
-Pretend play becomes increasingly JOINTLY
constructed
-Two conditions of joint construction that helps develop friendships:
* (1) Sharing feelings and experiences
* (2) Negotiating conflicts
-Learn how to both lead and follow
-Multiple perspective taking between them, others, different characters
86
Describe play and social interaction from 6 months to 4 years:
6-12 months: Parallel play
12-18 months: simple pretend play, talking, smiling and some interaction
18-24 months: Reciprocal play, action based role reversals in social games (peek a boo, chase)
2.5 -3:Cooperative social play, role taking, games eg. mum and baby but little planning or rules
3.5-4: Complex social pretend play, planned pretend play, assign roles to players, modify this if play breaks down
87
How can you tell if a child is de-centring and becoming other centred?
If they start commenting on psychological attributes as opposed to just describing others through physical attributes
88
Piaget's cognitive development milestones for Pre-operational (3-6 years):
Focus on most salient perceptual aspects. Describe others in very concrete and observable terms eg appearances, possessions. Physical comparisons
89
Piaget's cognitive development milestones for Concrete Operational (7-10 years):
Others have different points of view; allows them to look beyond surface appearances of people and to infer underlying aspects such as regularities in conduct, psychological traits. Psychological comparisons
90
Piaget's cognitive development milestones for Formal Operational (12-14 years):
Logical and systematic thinking, abstractions; mental inferences and deeper psychological comparisons between people
91
Selman’s Stages of Social Perspective Taking:
0. Egocentric perspective (3-6 yrs)
Unaware of any perspective other than their own. Their feelings will be shared by others
1. Social-Informational role-taking (6-8 yrs)
Can recognise that people can have perspectives that differ from their own. BUT only because they have received different information to themselves.
2. Self-Reflective role-
taking (8-10 yrs) Know that there can be conflict between their and others’ points of view, even with the same information. Both can take perspective of the other. BUT child can’t consider own and other perspective at the same time
3. Mutual role-taking
(10-12 yrs) Can simultaneously consider own and other perspective and know that others can do the same
4. 4. Societal role-taking
(12-15 yrs +) Perspectives made in comparison to social system expectancies and norms.
92
Describe the Holly Dilema:
Holly is 8 and she likes to climb trees.
One day she falls but is unhurt. Her Dad saw her fall and is upset and asks her to promise not to climb any more trees. she promises
Later that day Shawn’s kitten is stuck in a tree.
Among her friends Holly is the best climber. But she has promised her Dad
Kids are asked how they would respond
93
How would a child in Egocentric Perspective stage (social perspective taking) answer the Holly dilemma?
Assume Holly will save kitten. And her Dad will be happy because he likes kittens (because they like kittens)
94
How would a child in Social-Informational
role-taking stage (social perspective taking) answer the Holly dilemma?
"If he didn’t know why she climbed the tree, he would be angry. But if he knew why she did it, he would realise that she had good reason.”
95
How would a child in Self-Reflective role-
taking stage (social perspective taking) answer the Holly dilemma?
She’ll climb the tree and Dad will understand reason. But also understands that Dad would not have wanted her to climb it
– Dad’s concern perspective
96
How would a child in Mutual role-taking stage (social perspective taking) answer the Holly dilemma?
Perspective of disinterested 3rd party. “Holly wanted to get the kitten… but she knew she wasn’t supposed to climb trees. Holly’s father knew that Holly had been told not to climb trees, but he couldn’t have known (about the kitten)
97
How would a child in Societal role-taking stage (social perspective taking) answer the Holly dilemma?
Does not think Holly should be punished, treating animals kindly is important and justifies her act, and her Dad should recognise this.
98
What are the two functions of imitation?
(1) a learning mechanism through which infants gain new skills and knowledge about the world.
(2) a social function through which they engage in social and emotional exchanges with others
99
When does early imitation begin?
8 to 12 months given a model is present
100
What is differed imitation?
by two years:
* Ability to reproduce the actions of another in the future.
* Important milestone.
* Construction of symbolic representations of experiences, via retrieval of these from memory.
101
In typical development what imitation do infants to toddlers show?
* infants show imitation of vocalisations and facial expressions.
* Object-focused play (by age 1) > action imitation with toys.
* By age 2, imitation games involve a wider range of affective gestures (eg shrugging).
102
What is reciprocal imitation?
plays key role in early peer interactions
* Same action on same object as another > increase and sustain social interaction.
* Coordination of emotional responses > facilitates interactions.
* Refined for development of more sophisticated play skills
(eg symbolic play)
103
Why is reciprocal imitation important?
* Communicates social interest in others.
* Shared affective (emotional) experience.
* Conversational turn-taking.
104
What were adult views on The Case for Play in Schools?
-Social and emotional benefits; negotiating, problem solving, conflict management, compromise, fear and risk, building friendship
Cognitive and academic benefits; increased attention when return to class (especially in ADHD children), better class behaviour, more concentration and less fidgeting
105
What are children's views on The Case For Play In Schools?
-most children enjoy playtime
-playtimes associated with freedom
-children want play times to be longer with more to do and fewer rules
-children felt playtime should not be removed as a punishment
-having someone to play with is important but some children prefer to play alone
106
Autism Spectrum Condition:
-Lifelong, neurodevelopmental condition that affects how a person communicates with and relates to other people, and how they experience the world around them
-Spectrum disorder
107
Is there a cause of autism?
It is still not clear what causes Autism or if
there even is a cause:
- genetics
- environment (e.g. older parent age, pregnancy complications)
- gene <> environment interactions
108
Characteristics of autism:
-Sensory processing differences (hypersensitivity leading to stress, anxiety, physical pain)
-Obsession, repetitive behaviours, routines (as source of enjoyment but limits other activities with a resistance to change)
-Differences organizing, sequencing, and prioritizing activities (processing information, predicting consequences of actions, consequences of actions, concept of time, detail focused
-Differences in social behaviour, verbal and nonverbal communication, and imagination
-behaviour; self injury, physical risks to others
109
How can cultural differences affect autism diagnoses?
Different diagnosis assessments and criteria:
- DISCO (Diagnostic Interview for Social and
Communication Disorders)
- ADOS (Autism Diagnostic Observation
Schedule)
- ADI-R (Autism Diagnostic Interview - Revised)
- Indian Scale for Assessment of Autism (ISAA)
110
How is play different among younger autistic children?
* Object organisation.
* Preference to play alone.
* Repetitive, seemingly purposeless to (non-autistic) others but not to the child.
* Don’t abide by typical rules of shared play.
* Less symbolic play.
111
How is the role of Imitation different in autistic children?
* Autistic children show differences in frequency and nature of imitation skills.
* Actions on objects; Manual and posture / body movements; Facial imitation (eg expression)
* Reduced visual attention to social (and non-social) things.
* Preference for objects vs faces.
* Concerns that early imitation differences negatively affect social interactions with others, and thus social learning opportunities.
* However, mixed evidence for imitation differences among autistic children
112
What are two functions of imitation when children play?
(1) a learning mechanism through which
infants gain new skills and knowledge about
the world;
(2) a social function through which they
engage in social and emotional exchanges
with others.
113
How is imitation important for play?
The ability to imitate functional and symbolic
actions is related to the development of play
skills.
(Ingersoll, 2008)
114
What is a key clinical assessment feature of autism in childhood involving play?
Lack of pretend / symbolic play is a key clinical
assessment feature of autism in childhood
115
What is the nature of play in autistic children?
* Tendency for literal and rigid use of object functions.
* Symbolic/pretend play involves non-literal actions and beliefs (also elements of imitation).
* In more structured and directed play with objects, autistic children do produce different pretend acts with the same object/toy.
* Instead autistic children show reduced complexity, creativity, flexibility of pretend play. Need more external facilitation
116
Two hypotheses for Autism:
(1) Social Cognition Deficit
(2) Social Motivation Theory
117
The role of Theory of mind in play:
Research remains unclear on the exact role and contribution of ToM role within pretend play.
* Criticisms of joint attention and traditional false belief
tasks, measures too crude (Lin et al., 2017)
118
Why is the generation of meta representations important in pretend play? (Social Cognition deficit)
Understanding different thoughts and feelings
releases child from original representation to
create a new one > Theory of Mind (ToM).
119
How can Theory of Mind be assessed in autistic children? (Lin et al., 2017)
-ToM Task Battery (TOMTB)
-Child Initiated Pretend Play Assessment (ChIPPA): child’s ability to self-initiate and sustain pretend play over a period of 30 min
120
What does theory of mind predict about play in autistic children?
* Show that ToM positively predicts the elaborateness of
pretend play.
* Conclude that ToM predicts ‘quality’ and not quantity of pretend play in autistic children
121
Why may Theory of mind in autistic children be a preference rather than a deficit?
-evidence that autistic children can understand
pretend play that they observe in others.
-difference may lie in the production of pretend play rather than the ability to understand non-literal behaviours in others
122
Describe Social Motivation Theory in autism:
Non-autistic children motivated by social
feedback.
* Eye contact and shared attention/experience can be socially rewarding (Schilbach et al., 2010).
Autistic children can find sensory
feedback more rewarding and may
imitate more if that is involved.
123
Why might the Social Cognition Deficit hypothesis of children be wrong?
* Autistic children may have intact ability to pretend, but do not translate this into action.
* Reduced interest and reluctance to engage in
pretend play.
* It is a personal choice rather than a ‘deficit’.
Jarrold (2003)
124
What are the three manifestations of social interest in autistic people? (Social Motivation Theory)
-Social orienting: Core diagnostic criteria for autism in babies and toddlers include infrequent orienting to own name, reduced eye contact, engage less with other people
-Seeking & Liking: Less spontaneous helping and collaborative behaviours. Fewer friends but not ‘lonely’. Fewer initiations and bids for joint attention (e.g. declarative pointing).
-Social anhedonia in autistic adolescents (lack of feelings of pleasure in some social interactions and behaviours)
-Social Maintenance: Fewer spontaneous greetings or goodbyes, less small talk. Less strategic control of emotions or behaviours with others. But see also ‘masking’ (highly frequent behaviour
adaptation to blend in – strategic control
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What is masking in autistic people?
highly frequent behaviour adaptation to blend in – strategic control
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What is the Double Empathy Problem?
Reciprocal difficulties in understanding that can occur between people who hold different
norms and expectations of each other and have different communication styles
-autistic and non autistic people may both struggle to understand each other's thoughts, feelings, behaviour, and differences
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What account might disprove the social motivation hypothesis in autistic people?
The double empathy problem assumes that some (not necessarily all) autistic people yearn to be included, to be productive and to be useful. It thus directly opposes accounts that view autism as an extreme case of diminished social motivation
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What is Future Thinking?
The capacity to mentally pre-experience future events that involve the self
Imagining the future with yourself in it
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How is Future Thinking critical to young children's development and in daily life?
* Fundamental to the emergence of planning
* Adaptive significance of children’s ability to overcome conflict between their current and future desires
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What is 'Future Thinking' also know as in literature among other ages?
Episodic future thinking/thought, episodic foresight, prospection in adult cognition
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What are verbal Methods to assess Future Thinking?
Asking children to verbally report future events involving the self
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What happened when three year olds were asked to select items to bring on a trip (Atance and O'Neil 2005)?
when asked to explain their choices 40% of their explanations referenced the future: There is some future thinking ability by 3-years of age
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What is evidence that points towards children's capacity to talk about future events improving between ages 3 and 5? (Busby and Suddendorf, 2005)
* 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds asked to predict something they would do tomorrow
* Parents rated accuracy of their children’s statements
* The 4- and 5-year-olds’ responses were relatively accurate (63-69%)
* those of the 3-year-olds significantly less so (31%)
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What can help younger children with future thinking?
giving more specific scenarios/better cues
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Possible problem with verbal assessment of future thinking:
Children’s competence may be masked by
inadequate language abilities (know but
can’t verbalise) and understanding of
temporal terms (i.e. “later” “next”)
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What are 3 key characteristics of Future Thinking Behavioural measures?
1. Action is not cued by immediate environment
2. Action addresses a need arising only in future
3. Novel problem – not encountered before
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Explain the Spoon Test:
Behavioural Method of Future Thinking Assessment
*Young girl attends a party with a chocolate pudding served that she can’t have
because she has no spoon
* Next night, she takes a spoon to bed to avoid this scenario
The behaviour (spoon to bed) said to be a convincing example of foresight
* as it is not cued by regular environment &
* unique scenario – typically not experienced by children
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What were the results when 3-5 year olds were: a puzzle board with no puzzle pieces
After several minutes, children visited second room with a set of items (including puzzle pieces) and told that they were returning to the first room and instructed to
choose one item to bring back to the first room? (Suddendorf & Busby, 2005)
* Only 4- and 5-year-olds chose the puzzle pieces significantly more often in the experimental condition than in the control
condition
* Learned from past experience and adjusted their anticipatory behaviour
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What do several studies using variants of the spoon test suggest for 4 year olds?
By age 4, children select correct item to address future problem at above-chance levels
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Possible problems with spoon test tasks:
1. Studies suggest that retrospective memory
(forgetting the problem) rather than foresight, perse, accounted for 3-year-olds’ failures on this task
2. Correct item choices may primarily reflect
knowledge about the future instead of children’s ability to mentally pre-experience a future episode (i.e. – what are the puzzle pieces for?)
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What separates Future Thinking for other constructs?
Thinking about the self in the future
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Describe the behavioural method and results of future thinking assessment involving a tabletop soccer game:
3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds played tabletop soccer game:
* Easy side vs. Away side (more difficult to research)
Afterwards, told that they would play the game again the next day but from the Away side
* Instructed to choose necessary items (i.e., a straw and a stool to stand on to reach)
Only 5-year-olds performed significantly
above chance
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What happened when 3-5 year olds visited two rooms two times (no toy room and toy room) and asked where they should place a new box of toys for next time?
* Only 4- and 5-year-olds chose the no-toy room significantly more
often than chance
* Task requires thinking ahead about where an item is needed rather than what item is needed
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What is research that suggests previous studies over estimate future thinking?
* 3- and 7-year-olds indicated that they liked
pretzels and were given some to eat
* After consuming the pretzels (which were salty and made the children thirsty), asked what they would prefer to have the next day: pretzels or water
Even 7-year-olds predicted incorrectly that they
would want water as opposed to pretzels
tomorrow when they were thirsty today
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Are parental questionnaires a reliable assessment of Future Thinking in their children?
High reliability (good Cronbach’s Alpha),
promising validity
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What are advantages of using parental questionnaires for assessing Future Thinking?
* Avoids high verbal demands on children
* Includes questions that vary in context to improve ecological validity
* Allows for more efficient data collection
* Includes parental insight into children’s behaviour
(this could also be negative!)
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What is the underlying mechanism in Future Thinking?
Episodic memory: We flexibly
recombine details from past events to
simulate future episodes
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What research in adults supports the theory that we flexibly recombine details from past events to
simulate future episodes
* Supported by research with adults:
People’s ability to remember past events
overlaps cognitively and neurally with their
ability to pre-experience future ones Past event Future event
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Evidence of parallel development of episodic memory and future thinking:
3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds were asked:
* “Can you tell me something that you
did yesterday?’’
* “Can you tell me something you are
going to do tomorrow?”
Parents evaluated correctness
4-year-olds outperform 3-year-olds on both
questions
* Participants did not perform better on past than future questions
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What role do past events have in preparing for the future?
Past events comprise a database from
which we construct possible futures
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What is Prospective Memory?
The process and skills required to support the fulfilment of an intention to perform a specific
action in the future
-time based
-event based
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What is retrospective memory?
-Past oriented; Recall information, experiences, or events from the past
ie. working and episodic memory
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what triggers Prospective Memory?
PM is self driven and needs preparatory processes e.g. monitoring
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fill in the blank: Majority of forgetting is -------------- in nature
prospective
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Why is the development of prospective memory important?
-for developing independence
-for academic performance
-for social relations
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How is perspective memory important for social relations?
failure of PM is attributed to moral failing; Forgetting to post a card for someone’s birthday – seen as problem with reliability
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Four phases of Prospective Memory:
Intention Formation- intention is formed to do something in the future
Intention Retention- intention is postponed during a delay interval
Intention Retrieval- context is reached in which intention execution is possible or appropriate
Intention Execution- intention is finally fulfilled
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Common characteristics of Prospective Memory experimental tasks:
Delay; delay between forming the intention to do something and actually carrying out the task
Self Initiation; Not told to carry out the task – it needs to be self-generated at the right moment
Embedded in ongoing Activity; This mirrors our everyday life where, after encoding an intention, we carry on with other events
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How to increase motivation and reduce boredom when measuring Prospective Memory in children:
Game characteristics, Short blocks, Assess retrospective memory of task instructions, adjust task difficulty so that it isn't too demanding of executive functioning in younger children
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After what manipulations did 2 year olds performance deteriorate in task where they were asked to remind their caregivers?
-long delay condition and low interest
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How does age interact with motivation in prospective memory tasks?
Young pre-schoolers only perform as well as older pre-schoolers in highly motivating task. Age improvement in pre schoolers- able to
deal with longer durations and less interesting tasks
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When is prospective remembering detectable?
very early, around age 2
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Describe the tasks in the car driving game that measures prospective memory in children? (Kliegel et al.,2013)
Drive the red car while avoiding other cars, when successful in avoiding other cards, the children gain points
-Ongoing task to drive vehicle and avoid hitting other cars
-prospective memory in remembering to refuel
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Main effects in the the car simulation game for prospective memory:
-Older children better than younger children
-Both age-groups performed better with fewer cars
-more salient cues better than less salient cues
-one age group does not profit or suffer more based on cue distinctiveness
-Age difference significant for the non- focal, but not for the focal cue condition
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How are age differences influenced by task characteristics?
Younger children can perform as well as older
children in relatively easy tasks requiring less
cognitive resources
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Prospective memory mirrors what part of brain development?
mirrors Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) development. only fully developed in young adults
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What is the last area of the brain to develop?
Prefrontal Cortex- not fully developed until at least a person’s twenties
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What are Executive Functions/Processes?
Umbrella term for abilities involved in the conscious control of thought and action including working memory, inhibition, shifting, and monitoring
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What does executive function rely on?
development of the prefrontal cortex
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Three Key Predictions in the Executive Framework (Mahy et al., 2014):
-A certain level of executive functioning is necessary for the successful execution of a
prospective intention
-Developmental advances in executive functioning should enable better prospective
memory particularly under challenging task circumstances
-Different executive processes may be more or less important at different stages in
development given their differing developmental trajectories
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According to the Executive Framework, what does prospective memory require?
-working memory
-mind monitoring
-set shifting
-external monitoring
-inhibition
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Intention Emphasis:
Developmental difference between
adolescents and adults (Wang et al. 2006)
may be explained by the greater maturity of
adults’ inhibition and set shifting compared to
that of adolescents
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Why are tasks easier for pre schoolers when there are highly motivating intentions?
requires less working memory resources and inhibitory control, as children will be more interested and it will be more easily activated in memory
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How does cue salience affect prospective memory tasks?
Salient cues should facilitate shifting
attention, reduce demand for
monitoring, and require less inhibition
to activate the prospective action
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What is the role of cue focality in prospective memory tasks?
prospective memory is better than when attention needs to switch to other cue dimensions
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What processes are necessary for prospective memory?
Executive processes are necessary for prospective memory and a demanding ongoing task should consume executive
resources
