Executive Functions & Theory of Mind Flashcards
What are executive functions?
Executive functions are a series of processes needed for just about every aspect of life. This includes cognitive flexibility, working memory, inhibition, attention and planning.
What is cognitive flexibility? Give an example.
The ability to shift from one task to another
What is working memory?
The ability to retain information in your mind and progress within a task
What is inhibition? Give an example.
Inhibiting our desires to do something else e.g doing homework instead of watching TV
What is attention?
Attention is the ability to concentrate on one given task
What is planning?
The ability to remember the end goal of a task but being able to break up steps to understand how you will get there
Describe the attention span of an infant
Infants gradually become more efficient at managing their attention
Newborn babies require 3-4 minutes to habituate and recover to novel stimuli
4-5 month old infants, need as little as 5-10 seconds to process complex visual stimuli
As they develop, sustained attention increases
Describe the memory store of an infant
The hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for processes such as memory, learning, spatial navigation and emotions, develops significantly during the first few months thus the capacity for long-term memories begins to expand
This means infants can form memories, however, they are different from adult memories in the way that they are significantly less developed.
Between 6 and 9 months old, infants begin to develop the ability of object permanence, the ability to recall an object/ person although they are no longer in sight
Categorization of infants
How does autism affect ToM?
Autistic children struggle to understand other people’s minds because of their cognitive disabilities
They tend to have social atypicality’s in relationships, when reading and when producing social cues
Do autistic children lack understanding of other people’s minds?
Defective ToM and ‘mindlblindness’ - Leslie (1987); Baron-Cohen (1995)
How does autism relate to
ToM and empathy
• People with autism have a profound difficulty in understanding the minds of other people (theory of mind) including their emotions, beliefs, feelings and values
• Social and communicative issues
Empathy; cognitive empathy can be lower in people with autism, they struggle to express typical empathy
Newer research suggests that people with autism may feel others emotions very deeply; they just express it in a different way to neurotypical people
How does autism relate to ToM and emotions?
How does autism relate to the ‘absent self’ hypothesis?
The ‘absent self’ hypothesis suggests that c people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have a deficit in a particular type of higher-order self-awareness
People with ASD may have little self understanding and a weak sense of self
