Social cognition

Question 1

Chimps show yawning contagion in response to which models?

Answer 1

Familiar human - yes
Strange human - yes
Ingroup chimp - yes
Outgroup chimp - no (fear and aggression get in way)
Gelada baboon - no (no fear but not close enough)

Question 2

Spontaneous altruism has been found in _______ and ____ ______ – even in the absence of _________

Answer 2

Spontaneous altruism has been found in chimps and young children – even in the absence of reward

Question 3

At what age do infants begin to incorporate outside objects into their interactions with adults?

Answer 3

In the latter half of the first year of life.

Question 4

What are the 3 kinds of joint attention in triadic interactions?

Answer 4

1. Sharing attention –all by 9 months
   Lowest level. Baby and caregiver look at object together. Gaze alternation between object and parent. Methodologically, want to be sure that looks to object and parent are not incidental.
2. Following attention – all by 14 months
   Infant now can follow gaze so well it knows what people are looking at. Deliberate attention following, much less ambiguous. Follow attention via gaze. Follow behaviour via imitation.
3. Directing attention – all by 15 months
   Imperative gestures (involves pointing)
   Declarative gestures (involves pointing)
   Verbal communication

Question 5

What did Carpenter et al. (1998) report in their study of attention in triadic interactions from 9-15 months?

Answer 5

60% of infants mastered all the skills in 3 months

80% of infants mastered all the skills in 4 months

Question 6

When an infant encounters a novel object in a triadic interaction, the mother is the ______, the infant is the _______ and the object is the _______.

Answer 6

When an infant encounters a novel object in a triadic interaction, the mother is the referee, the infant is the referrer and the object is the referent.

Question 7

What are the results of the visual cliff study?

Answer 7

Percentage of 12-month-old infants who crossed over when mother’s expression was:

Joy - 74%
Fear - 0%
Interest - 73%
Anger - 11%
Sadness - 33%

Question 8

What are two implications of the visual cliff study?

Answer 8

1. Infants appreciate that parents can supply information–in the form of an emotional appraisal–about novel objects (i.e., person, thing or situation)
2. Infants spontaneously seek such information from a third party or referee (e.g., parent or experimental confederate) to resolve their own uncertainty and to guide their actions

Question 9

What are the four prerequisites for social learning?

Answer 9

1. Infant must be able to decode signal
2. Infant must understand referential quality of information
3. Infant must appreciate the potential for social communication of information
   * 4. Infant should have the skills to elicit information

Question 10

What is a simple behaviourist explanation for why children point to share attention?

Answer 10

The response is going to be highly rewarding –it elicits caregiver attention.

Question 11

What does the Liszkowski et al. (2007) pointing study reveal, and what does this mean?

Answer 11

Infants more likely to point when confederate looking away from referent. This means they usual social gestures to convey information.

Infants similarly likely to point when confederate is looking AT referent and has positive expression. This means they use social gestures to share.

Question 12

What differentiates humans from apes in the way they can share attention?

Answer 12

Apes can follow gaze, BUT they do not seem to grasp that partners in communication share a joint attentional frame – they look where you look but don’t assume that you are trying to share a point of view.

Thus, in game of hide-and-seek, 14-month-olds understand adult pointing to bucket may reveal something within (assumption follows from joint attentional frame)

In similar game with chimp, point or look to the very same bucket elicits a response of the type: Bucket? So what? Where food?

Question 13

What is an alternate reading of the results of the watermelon study?

Answer 13

Infants think of people as goal directed agents. They know that seeing leads to knowing. These skills might be adequate to solve FB tasks like the watermelon task –without a representational theory of belief.

Question 14

Do apes track false-belief understanding? What CAN they do?

Answer 14

Doesn’t look like it. They distinguish between an informed and uninformed competitor. But not between an informed and MISinformed competitor.

That is, they can tell when someone doesn’t know something, but they can’t tell when someone knows something that is false.

Question 15

How do high-functioning autistic kids do on tests of explicit ToM?

Answer 15

The same as neurotypicals.

Question 16

What are the results of the Astington and Jenkins (1999) longitudinal study of language ability and ToM? 4 points

Answer 16

1. There was continuity in LC and ToM over time.
2. All measures of LC were strongly correlated with ToM
3. LC at earlier points predicted ToM at later points (reverse relationship did not hold).
4. Some evidence syntax was of primary importance for later theory of mind.

Question 17

What’s the difference between sequential, invariant and hierarchical development?

Answer 17

Sequential: The stages of development for any process of growth happen in a prescribed sequence.

Invariant: Each of these stages happen in a set sequence which must be taken in order. One cannot skip a stage. One cannot do them in a different order.

Hierarchical: Each stage is more complex than the one before it and pulls together the qualities of the preceding stages. There is a certain level of competence which is necessary at each stage before we are able to move to the next one. If the prior competency is lost, the developmental sequence will collapse. We need the prior stages to support the later ones