Lecture 9A: Child Social Cognition

Question 1

What is social cognition?

Answer 1

A subfield of psychology that examines how people process, store, and apply information about people and social situations

Question 2

What is socio-cognitive development?

Answer 2

This is the study how infants and children reason about people’s beliefs, thoughts, goals, and intentions, including their own, and how it influences their behaviour.

Question 3

Revise the chart about socio-cognitive development

Question 4

What is Theory of Mind?

Answer 4

The ability to attribute mental states such as knowledge, beliefs, and desires to oneself and others, and to understand that other people can have knowledge, beliefs, and desires that differ
from one’s own.

Question 5

When does theory of mind develop?

Answer 5

Begins to develop between 3 and 4 years of age, and is nearly fully developed at around 6 years of age.

Question 6

What is false belief?

Answer 6

The ability to understand that other people can hold beliefs that differ from reality is termed false belief

Question 7

What was Wimmer and Perner false-belief task?

Answer 7

Wimmer and Perner presented children between 3 and 9 years of age with sketches in which a character named Maxi placed his chocolate into
a cupboard, and his mother then moved it to a different cupboard while Maxi was out of the room.

When asked where Maxi would look for his chocolate when he re-entered the room, children younger than 4–5 years of age incorrectly stated that Maxi would look for his chocolate at its new location, whereas children older than 4–5 years of age understood that Maxi would look in the original location.

Question 8

How do children develop a theory of mind

Answer 8

At 3 year-olds children start to understand that different people may want, like and feel different things.

Question 9

How do psychologists test theory of mind?

Answer 9

Developmental psychologists have numerous ways to test ToM such as false-belief tasks, such as the Sally-Anne Task and the Smarties Task.

Question 10

What is the sally-anne task?

Answer 10

The Sally–Anne test is a psychological test originally by Daniel Dennett, used in developmental psychology to measure a person’s social cognitive ability to attribute false beliefs to others.

The process: Sally puts her marble in her basket and leaves the room. While Sally is away, Anne moves the marble from the basket to the box. Sally returns to the room and the test participant is asked “Where will Sally look for her marble?” this is the belief question.

Question 11

What is the smarties task?

Answer 11

A child is shown a closed box of Smarties, the box is rattled to generate interest, and the child is asked what they think is in the box. Children typically answer with the obvious, Smarties. Each is shown that the box in fact contained pencils.

Question 12

How does lying and theory of mind connect?

Answer 12

Lying behaviour in children improves with theory of mind development.

Question 13

What was the study about lying by (Talwar & Lee, 2002)?

Answer 13

An examiner tempted 3- to 8-year-olds to commit a minor transgression peeking at a toy, after being told not to peek. The examiner then assessed whether children would lie or admit to peeking.

Question 14

What did (Talwar & Lee, 2002) conclude?

Answer 14

Younger children tended to confess their transgression, but most older children lied. Some were better at lying to conceal their transgression and sticking to their lie than others.

**Children who performed well on false-belief tasks were better liars and sustained liars.

Question 15

Why is white lie-telling in children important?

Answer 15

Prosocial types of lying behaviour, such as white lie-telling, is important in the development of politeness norms and a part of healthy social development.

Question 16

What was the study done by (Koenig, Clément, & Harris, 2004) on reliability?

Answer 16

An examiner asked 3- and 4-year-old children to watch two unfamiliar adults name four familiar objects.

One adult named the four objects correctly, for example by saying, “That’s a cup” to a cup. The other adult named the four objects incorrectly, for example by labeling the cup a ball.

Children judged one adult as more reliable or accurate than the other, and later preferred to ask for information from the adult they viewed to be more trustworthy

Question 17

What was (Kushnir et al., 2013) study about expertise?

Answer 17

Young children selectively request information or help from people who are knowledgeable in the relevant areas.

Children 3 and 4 years of age were more likely to ask the person they saw fix an object in the past (but who did not know the names of objects: the “fixer”) to fix a toy that was broken.

In contrast, children were more likely to ask a person who knew the names of objects (but could not fix objects: the “labeler”) the label for an object. With age, children improved in their ability to direct requests to the individual with the relevant skills.

Question 18

What is selective social learning?

Answer 18

While children are naive, they are selective in who they choose to learn from. This is called selective social
learning.

Question 19

How do 3 year olds evaluate peoples knowledge and expertise?

Answer 19

Through Non-Epistemic cues/Traits

1. Testimony
2. Personality
3. Group Membership
4. Appearance
5. Familiarity

Question 20

How do 4-5 year olds evaluate peoples knowledge and expertise?

Answer 20

Through Epistemic cues/Traits

1. Expertise
2. Reliability/Accuracy
3. Consensus

Question 21

Which cues start to become more important?

Answer 21

With age, epistemic cues (e.g., expertise, history of reliability) become more important than non-epistemic cues (e.g.,
familiarity, likeability).

• This developmental shift happens at around 4 years of age.

Question 22

Are our perceptions of gender stereotypes changing, and is that affecting how children see their own abilities?

Answer 22

YES! because common stereotypes to associate high-level intellectual
ability/brilliance with men..

This could discourage women’s pursuit of many prestigious careers
* Example: Mathematics, physics, philosophy
* Gendered notions of brilliance are acquired early

Question 23

What was the Ability Versus Interest study by (Bian et al)

Answer 23

This study included children ages 5-7 from a middle-class backgrounds, 75% white sample, They assessed children’s endorsement of the “brilliance = males” stereotype with different tasks

Children were told a brief story about a person who was “really, really
smart.” Children were asked to guess which of four unfamiliar adults
(2 men, 2 women) was the protagonist of the story.

Question 24

What did the ability versus interest study conclude?

Answer 24

These stereotypes are endorsed by, and influence the interests of, children as young as 6. Specifically, 6-year-old girls are less likely than boys to believe that members of their gender are “really, really smart.”

Also at age 6, girls begin to avoid activities said to be for children who are “really, really smart.”

These findings suggest that gendered notions of brilliance are acquired early and have an immediate effect on children’s interests.

Question 25

What is Gendered Socialization in Play?

Answer 25

Parents tend to reinforce gender stereotypes through the types
of toys they give their children.

• Boys are encouraged to play with spatial toys (e.g., blocks, puzzles)
• Girls are encouraged to play with non-spatial toys (e.g., dolls)

Question 26

Why are Spatial toys important for both genders?

Answer 26

Spatial reasoning in important because it is linked to success in STEM fields.

• Therefore, how children engage with spatial toys can impact their cognitive
  development and future career interests.

Question 27

What was the study published in the Journal of Applied Developmental
Psychology by Eisen et al?

Answer 27

This study involved parents’ and children’s Gendered Beliefs about Toys. It included children ages 4-7.

The task included:
1. Children participated in a picture task to assess their beliefs about which gender is “better” at using certain toys

2. Parents completed a questionnaire rating their beliefs about toy preferences and abilities for boys vs. girls.

Question 28

What were the results from parents of Gendered Beliefs about Toys study?

Answer 28

1. Parents viewed spatial toys as more suited for boys and non-spatial toys for girls.
2. No difference in perceived ability when playing with spatial toys.
3. No significant gender bias for screen media in terms of preference or ability.
4. Frequency of play was positively correlated with parental beliefs about the educational value of toys.

Question 29

What were the results of children the Gendered Beliefs about Toys study?

Answer 29

1. Screen media (e.g., tablets, computers) were the most popular toys, with boys and girls equally choosing them
2. Girls favored non-spatial toys more than boys, while boys showed a slight preference for spatial toys

They concluded that Children did not show significant gendered beliefs about who is better at which toys, but tended to show egocentric responses (choosing toys associated with their own gender).

Question 30

What is Prosocial Behaviour?

Answer 30

Behaviour that is intended to
benefit other people.

• Examples: Sharing, helping, linguistic politeness

Question 31

What is Linguistic Politeness?

Answer 31

Politeness that shows consideration to other people through language.

• Example: Linguistic politeness, white lie-telling

Question 32

What are Pragmatics?

Answer 32

The meaning of language beyond the
literal.

• Example: Sarcasm, linguistic politeness

Question 33

How has literature studied linguistic politeness in children?

Answer 33

One way the literature has studied linguistic politeness in children was through indirect versus direct requests.

Question 34

When can children distinguish between direct and indirect requests?

Answer 34

5- to 8-year-old children can distinguish between direct and indirect requests
and indirect requests are viewed as more appropriate among children of all
ages. (Wilkinson et al., 1984).

Question 35

What does the Present Study showcase about direct and indirect request?

Answer 35

Primary aim was to examine children’s preferences for direct versus indirect request forms based on authority status of the addressee and the type of
request being made.

This was done online via video conferencing.

Question 36

What research questions were in the present study?

Answer 36

Experiment 1: Will children prefer to use indirect requests with higher status addresses more often than with lower status addressees?

Experiment 2: Will children prefer to allocate more resources to polite speakers than impolite speakers?

Question 37

What did they conclude from the experiment questions?

Answer 37

Experiment 1: They are also aware of the authority status (social distance) of
the addressee when attributing polite versus impolite requests.

Experiment 2: They are also more likely to allocate more resources to polite
speakers versus impolite speakers, suggesting there is a social preference.