social cognition

Question 1

social brain hypothesis

Answer 1

the primate brain evolved to be disproportionately large in order to support the social cognition necessary for successful group living

as the group size increases, so does the number of relationships. this increases the cognitive demand

requires expanded social skills, such as cooperation

remembering who did something, did this monkey give me a banana or did they poke me with a stick - determines your actions toward them

Question 2

what does cooperation require

Answer 2

communication (language and nonverbal communication skills)

memory of past encounters

conflict resolution

Question 3

social influence

Answer 3

suggests our thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, and actions are influenced by other people

conforming to fit in

can be through social media, auditory and visual stimuli we see around us

our individual judgements are shaped by other’s opinions

we understand and abide by often unwritten rules of etiguette that govern social behaviour

Question 4

conformity

Answer 4

the tendency for people to shift their own opinions, beliefs, and actions such that they are in agreement with other people

even simple things people conform to

following and going with a group

two reasons people conform: informational conformity and normative conformity

Question 5

informational conformity

Answer 5

in uncertain situations, we rely on the opinions of others as a source of information

ie/ running from smt because other people are

Question 6

normative conformity

Answer 6

people may conform to be liked by others

especially when there is no right answer

Question 7

classic studies of social conformity by solomun asch

Answer 7

people do not want to stand out or be different

everyone says A’s, then the 6th person who the experiment was being done one knows B is the closest, they are still conformed to say A

line matching task after hearing answers from other people

Question 8

conformity and fMRI results

Answer 8

activity in the rostral cingulate zone (RCz) increased when participants received feedback that their ratings differed from group ratings= similar to a “conflict”
- perceived as an error

activity in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) increased when participants received feedback that their rating agreed with group ratings = similar to a “reward”
- perceived as a positive outcome

Question 9

social norms

Answer 9

written (laws) and unwritten (what to wear to a funeral) rules that govern social behaviour
- regulate how to function in a group setting

“socially inappropriate” behaviour is associated with:
- traumatic brain injury, especially when frontal lobe damage is implicated
- some kinds of dementia, especially frontatemporal dementia
- people with autism who can have difficulty understanding social norms and expectations

Question 10

economic games and social norms

Answer 10

neuroimaging studies of social norm compliance have focused on economic games in which social norms of fairness are critical in the game

ie/ ultimatum game

Question 11

the ultimatum game

Answer 11

take it or leave it game

one player (the giver) decides how to split a reward between themselves and another player (the receiver)

Question 12

findings from the ultimatum game

Answer 12

offer acceptance decreases as it becomes less fair

unfair offers less accepted when giver is human as opposed to a computer program

increasing unfairness of offer increases activity of insula, ACC and DLPFC

insula: stronger response to unfair offers from humans than a computer

ACC and DLPFC: Potentially due to greater demands on cognitive control for decision making

Question 13

activity in anterior insula

Answer 13

associated with feeling disgust

this increases with increasing unfairness of an offer

Question 14

activity in anterior cingulate and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex

Answer 14

important in cognitive control and conflict resolution

higher in receivers when they receive an unfair vs fair offer

Question 15

damage to orbitofrontal cortex (OFC)

Answer 15

most strongly associated with alterations in social behaviour and judgements

lateral OFC in important in integrating emotional cues with decision making

Question 16

conclusions about neural basis of social norm hypothesis

Answer 16

the frontal including OFC, DLPFC and ACC are critically involved (needed to comply w/ social norms

these regions are essential for cognitive control and decision making (executive functions) which are necessary for social norm compliance

consistant with the social brain hypothesis: the frontal cortex expanded over evolutionary time to support social cognition

Question 17

what are the two main theories of understanding other’s thoughts and feeling

Answer 17

simulation theory

theory of mind

two theories are not mutually exclusive, each likely to operate in different circumstances

Question 18

simulation theory

Answer 18

we understand the mental states of others through simulation, imitation, mimicry, or acting “as if” we are them

ie/ seeing someone cry may make us cry

Question 19

theory of mind

Answer 19

we have a cognitive representation of other people’s mental states, including their feelings and their knowledge

ie/ professor knowing something, but knows this is the first time student is seeing it

Question 20

mirror neurons

Answer 20

neural mechanisms of imitation likely depends on this

fire both when taking an action and when observing the same action performed by another

Question 21

stimulation theory: imitation

Answer 21

can be conscious and unconscious

can contribute to social cohesion, as people tend to mimic friends more than strangers, and likeable strangers more than unlikable stranger

more likely to be when they are primed with pro-social words affiliate, friend, together if we do not mimic - may not like that person as much - or after experiencing social exclusion and have a desire for inclusion

direct eye contact enhances the tendency to mimic another person

neuroimaging demonstrated that superior temporal gyrus (important coding gaze direction) dorsal medial prefrontal cortex , and inferior frontal gyrus showed greater activity when direct gaze was paired with congruent hand

Question 22

theory of mind

Answer 22

mentalizing

capacity to cognitively represent another person’s mental states and understand that they may be different than one’s own

can be assessed with the false belief task, which activates both the temporoparietal junction and the medial prefrontal cortex

involves thinking about another person’s thoughts

necessary for lying , teachers evaluating a students knowledge

Question 23

heider-simmel illusion

Answer 23

demonstrated that we attribute mental states to objects when they move in certain ways

Question 24

mind-in-the-eyes task

Answer 24

participants view pictures of eyes cropped out of a face, and must decide what emotion the person is feeling

Question 25

regions activated by social animations and mind in the eyes task

Answer 25

inferior frontal cortex

temporoparietal junction

Question 26

regions activated by false belief task

Answer 26

medial frontal

temporoparietal junctions

Question 27

empathy

Answer 27

commonly defined as the ability to understand how another feels

components: emotional contagion, cognitive perspective-taking, pro-social action

Question 28

emotional contagion

Answer 28

causes us to feel as others feel

Question 29

cognitive perspective-taking

Answer 29

allows us to understand another person’s point of view (mentalizing)

Question 30

pro-social action

Answer 30

behaviour targeted to help another person in need

Question 31

empathic accuracy

Answer 31

participant’s ratings of another person’s feelings during a video clip are compared to the person’s own self-report

participants with better matches (higher empathic accuracy) show greater activity in brain areas associated with mirroring and mentalizing
- correlates with original targets

Question 32

self versus other

Answer 32

can distinguish our feeling from others

we also make mental-state attributions about ourselves
- ie/ reflecting upon our own goals, intentions, feelings, beliefs, etc.

mentalizing about oneself activates similar regionsas when we mentalize about others, suggesting a common basis for mental-state attribution

greater social closeness is associated with greater self-other overlap in neural activity

Question 33

broken mirror theory

Answer 33

the mirror neuron system may not be operating normally in autism

• mirror neuron deficits seem to be limited to the imitation of facial expression or other emotional gestures, less evidence that nonemotional actions (such as imitative hand movements) are affected

did not activate premotor regions as extremely

Question 34

effects of autism on social cognition

Answer 34

social deficits may originate from difficulties perceiving and recognizing emotional expressions in others

difficulty in identifying facial expressions, particular when the faces are unfamiliar
- less activation of brain regions involved in processing faces (e.g. fusiform face area)

fixate their gaze less on the eye region of the face
- overlook the social cue of gaze direction which can help us understand what other people are attending to and thinking about

mentalizing (cognitive perspective taking) ability affected

difficulty with mentalizing tasks such as false belief tasks and the mind-in-the-eyes task

less brain activity when attempting to understand the mental states of others, do not tend to activate the brain tegions that neurologically typical people do, such as the mPFC and temporoparietal junction (TPJ)

Question 35

struggle with cognitive empathy in autism

Answer 35

cognitive interferences required to represent the feeling states of others or to choose appropriate behavioural responses (cognitive perspective-taking)

Question 36

still experiencing emotional empathy in autism

Answer 36

feeling what others feel (emotional contagion)

when viewing pics of people in pain, brain regions involved in vicarious experience of pain are activated

display affective sharing: when viewing videos of people telling emotional stories, self-reported feelings matched what the believed the storyteller was feeling

Question 37

perceiving and judging social groups

Answer 37

the brain rapidly distinguishes between in group and out group categories

the ERP methodology is well suited to determine the speed of categorizing stimuli
- studies demonstrated that within a fraction of a seconds, the brain is already responding differently to stimuli based on social category - even if that category is arbitrary

Question 38

ERP method and judging social groups

Answer 38

ERP response larger in response to faces of ingroup members that out group members

brain imaging shows increased activity in amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex fusiform gyrus in response to in group members than out group members

Question 39

stereotyping

Answer 39

the tendency to assume that certain characteristics are universally true of group members

brain regions involved in mentalizing (mPFC and temporoparietal juntion) are engaged when people make stereotypical judgements about social groups

Question 40

prejudice

Answer 40

a negative attitude about a particular social group

Question 41

discrimination

Answer 41

behaviour that is biased against against a particular social group

Question 42

racial bias and the brain

Answer 42

unconscious racial bias correlated with amygdala activity
- faster fear conditioning to other-race vs. own race faces

other regions (anterior cingulate and the DLPFC) implicated in cognitive control
- may be activated when participants attempt to control their own racial biases
- better executive function performance associated with less implicit racial bias

Question 43

stereotype threat

Answer 43

activation of a stereotype can lead to underperformance by a member of a stereotyped group
- when social categories are made salient, people in denigrated social categories may fear confirming the stereotype about their category
- when the stereotype involves cognitive performance and perpetuate the stereotype
- the stress of being reminded of a negative stereotype may activate physiological arousal or increase cognitive load, interfering with cognitive performance

beliefs about a group difference can affect actual cognitive performance