social cognition Flashcards
what is the ecological hypothesis (brain size)
large brains are a bi-product of the cognitive demands of certain types of behaviours (foraging, innovation and tool use)
evolution and the social brain hypothesis
primates have unusually large brains for their body size compared to all over vertebrates
this comes at a very high energy cost
why is the larger energy cost of having a larger brain worth it? (ecological hypothesis)
better foraging (mental mapping)
more innovative
use of tools
why is the larger energy cost of having a larger brain worth it? (social hypothesis)
larger brains reflect enhanced social skills developed through social competition
achieve social success through deception, manipulation, alliance formation, exploitation of others’ expertise
mating advantage, more resources to the individual
what is empathy
identification and sharing of other’s affective assets
1) presence of affective state in oneself
2) isomorphism between one’s own and another person’s affective state
3) elicitation of one’s own affective state upon observation or imagination of another person’s affective state
4) knowledge that the other person’s affective state is the source of one’s own affective state
what is sympathy
Refers to an emotional response congruent with the other person’s feelings, but not necessarily isomorphic
how does sympathy differ from empathy
different emotional reactions to the same situation (e.g, may feel anger or pity)
what is mentalizing
Drawing inferences about other people’s mental states, including their affective states,
how does mentalizing differ from empathy
does not entail an affective involvement as in empathy
what is empathetic concern or compassion
Similar concepts to sympathy but these involve a motivation to act (e.g. help the other person)
how does empathetic concern or compassion differ from empathy
understand the suffering to others and wanting to do something about it
what is emotion contagion
The tendency to automatically mimic and synchronize facial expressions, vocalizations with those of another person and, consequently, to converge emotionally
how does emotion contagion differ from empathy
no self-other distinction
measuring empathy: perspective taking
tendency to spontanesously adopt the psychological point of view of others
measuring empathy: empathic concern
assess “other-oriented” feelings of sympathy and concern for unfortunate others
measuring empathy: personal distress
measures self oriented feelings of personal anxiety and unease in tense interpersonal settings
measuring empathy: fantasy scale
taps respondents’ tendencies to transpose themselves imaginatively into the feelings and actions of fictitious characters in books, movies and plays
what are mirror neurons
some of the neurons that aer active when monkey makes a movement are also active when the monkey observes that movement done by someone else
in humans, the evidence for existence of mirror neurons is indirect
simulation theories of empathy
we come to understand others’ actions, sensations and emotions by means of the activation of the neural representations corresponding to those states
to understand what others are doing, we stimulate their movements using our own motor program
to understand what others are feeling, we stimulate their feelings using our own affective programs
pain matrix
similar brain areas are activated when observing someone else in pain, as when you experience the pain yourself
empathy and mirror neurons
largely supported by evidence that both imitating and observing facial expressions of emotions activates areas typically associated with mirror neurons, such as the inferior frontal gyrus
theory of mind
capacity to think about mental states requires mentalizing, or, the theory of mind
theory of mind - test of false belief
basket with marble in it, someone else moves marble to box, where will person with basket look?
children aged 4 - in the box
children aged 5 and up - in the basket
theory of mind - what is intentionality
tendency to explain behaviour in terms of mental states
what is zero-order intentionality
assumption that an agent possess no beliefs or desires. it responds to stimuli reflexively, such as producing a scream when frightened or running to evade a predator
what is first order intentionality
agent possess beliefs and desires, but not beliefs about beliefs. may produce a scream because it believes a predator is present or wants others to run away
what is second order intentionality
possesses beliefs about other people’s beliefs. may produce a scream because it wants others to believe that a predator is nearby
what is third order intentionality
agent possess beliefs about other people’s beliefs concerning beliefs about other people, such as “I think that John thinks that Sally doesn’t know where the marble is
neural basis of theory of mind: temporal poles
normally activated in tasks of memory and semantic memory
conceptual knowledge
generating schemas that specify the current social or emotional context
neural basis of theory of mind: medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC)
crucial for social cognition, and maybe theory of mind
posterior mPFC: linking value to actions
anterior mPFC: thinking about thinking
orbital mPFC: linking value to real or predicted outcomes (motivational drives)
neural basis of theory of mind: temporal parietal junction
activated in variety of tasks, including biological motion, eye gaze, moving mouths, etc
attribution of mental states to others
self-other distinction in various domains (cognitions, emotions, etc)
what is egocentricity bias
tendency to project affective state onto others
participants judge less pleasant or pleasant if themselves are experiencing incongruent sensations
e.g., one participant experiences unpleasant, other participant experiences pleasant, tended to minimise the pleasant feeling of other PP
empathy and theory of mind in autism
substantial evidence that autistic individuals perform poorly, or are even incapable of succeeding, in false belief task
It was suggested deficits in ToM are a core feature of autism, however there is considerable debate about this assumption
brain development - what is neural pruning
we are born with more neurons than we have now
death of neurons occurs, and only the most adaptive/sufficient connections will survive to increase efficiency
therefore, grey matter becomes less dense as we get older
