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Developmental Psychology > Social Cognition And Autism > Flashcards

Social Cognition And Autism Flashcards

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1
Q

What is cognition?

A

The mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses

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2
Q

What is social?

A

Relating to society or its organization.

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3
Q

What is social cognition?

A

The mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding relating to society or its organization through thought, experience, and the senses.

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4
Q

What type of mental processing of information does social cognition refer to?

A

Related to intentions, dispositions, and behaviours of others, it goes through these stages:

  • selection
  • encoding
  • storage
  • retrieval
  • processing
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5
Q

What is the theory of mind?

A

The ability to attribute, to others, mental states (knowledge, intentions, emotions), to explain, predict and justify behaviour.

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6
Q

Why is the theory of mind crucial?

A

It gives us understanding and engaging with others.

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7
Q

How does the theory of mind allow us to navigate through our personal/social world?

A

It allows us to explain our behaviour and that of others.

It allows us to make predictions of our behaviour and that of others.

Which then guides our personal/ social actions in social situations

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8
Q

What is retrodicting?

A

Having the ability to predict what happened in the past to cause mental states to develop

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9
Q

Outline the study investigating retrodiction

A

Videos were filmed of spontaneous reactions to 4 different scenarios:

  • Being told a joke
  • having to wait
  • reviving a compliment
  • being told a story

35 participants were asked to judge which scenario had elicited each reaction.

Results:
Subjects successfully deduced which scenario had previously occurred.

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10
Q

How can we assess the theory of mind abilities on children including the pre verbal stage when testing such a complex hypothesis?

A

Is the task:

  • as simple as possible
  • are as familiar as possible
  • are as age-appropriate as possible
  • yield answers as unambiguous as possible.
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11
Q

Name a popular test that has been used to investigate theory of mind abilities on children?

A

Sally and Anne test (false belief)

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12
Q

Describe the Sally and Anne test

A

Pictures of cartoon characters (sally and Anne) are presented to a child

Sally will then put the ball in the basket

Anne will walk away

Anne will will move the ball into her box while sally is not aware as she is not present

And then the child will be asked where will sally look for the ball.

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13
Q

What would possible outcomes of the sally and Anne test suggest about the child’s behaviour?

A

If the child picks the box they are only stating what they have witnessed

If the child picks the basket it means that the child is talking about what Sally’s experience of reality was.

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14
Q

What two types of false belief do we have?

A

Epistemic perspective-taking (reposing about beliefs)

Conceptual perspective -taking
Distinguishing between appearance and reality

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15
Q

What is epistemic perspective-taking?

A

Attribution of justified false beliefs: recognising that one can have beliefs that diverge from reality but are justified by one’s experience of the world.

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16
Q

What is conceptual perspective-taking?

A

Ability to recognise that the way things appear is different from the way that they really are.

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17
Q

When do children developed epistemic perspective-taking?

A

Developed after the age of four

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18
Q

When does the attribution of false belief to oneself develop?

A

After the age of four

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19
Q

When does conceptual perspective-taking develop?

A

After the age of four

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20
Q

When does theory of mind develop specifically?

A

4-4.5 years of age.

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21
Q

What two accounts have researchers from different fields developed on how we reason about other minds?

A

Theory of theory account

Simulation theory

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22
Q

What does the theory theory account suggest?

A

We understand other’s mental states and behaviours by having a model (theory) of other minds, in the same way we understand the movement of non-animate entities basis of a naive physics notions.

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23
Q

What does the simulation theory suggest?

A

We understand the minds of others because their mental states can be internally replicated (simulated) in our own minds.

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24
Q

Describe procedure of the study that tests whether adults are good at attributing mental states to others?

A

Pairs of participants (one a confederate) were asked to play a referential communication game:

  • several objects were put between the participants and the confederate in a grid
  • the confederate gave instructions to move things about in the grid
  • most objects were mutually visible but some were only visible to the participants
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25
Q

Outline the results of the test that investigated whether adults are good at attributing mental states to other’s?

A

Some of the objects had duplicates
-e.g a large and small candle

When the confederate asked participants to move the small candle

Participants would consider the candle that was hidden from the confederate (they would gaze at it and reach for it.

This shows the participants did not seem to consider the confederates perspective.

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26
Q

What is an egocentric bias?

A

A tendency to be biased by ones own knowledge when attempting to appreciate a more naive or uninformed perspective

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27
Q

Is the theory of mind an automatic process?

A

No overcoming an egocentric bias is cognitively demanding

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28
Q

What affects how adults perform in different belief-reasoning problems?

A

General processing speed and executive function

Simultaneously performing a task that interferes with working memory

Language processing

Brian injury affecting working memory or other aspects of executive function

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29
Q

What did apperly and butterfill argue about theory of mind abilities?

A

It is highly flexible

But:

  • not automatic
  • It is cognitively demanding
  • Depends on a limited quantity of cognitive resources
30
Q

What are possible problems theory of mind tests in children?

A

Binary repsonse:
either correct or incorrect. No detection of degrees of performance that fall somewhere in between.

Instruction Comprehension (temporal dimension):
-From: “where will sally look for the ball?”
To: “where will sally look for the ball, first of all?” (Younger children more likely to succeed in task if phrased second way)

Overall linguistic ability

31
Q

Describe the violation of expectation experiment conducted by omission and Baillargeon

A

-Tested on 15 month olds

Infants watched as:

  • an actor put an object in one of two boxes (box A)
  • the object was moved to the others box (box B) either with the actor seeing or not seeing
  • the actor then looked for the object in one of the boxes

Results:
-Infants looked longer when the actor searched in the box that was inconsistent with their belief (either true-when they had seen- or false)

32
Q

Describe the procedure of buttelman’s violation of expectation experiment

A

18 months old were shown two boxes and how they could be locked by putting a wooden pin into a hole in the front.

Two experimenters:
-Having played with a soft toy, the first experimenter put it in a box.

-the second experimenter then moved the soft toy to the other box, in 2 conditions:

Conditions:
A) true belief (the first experimenter saw the hiding of the toy)

B) False belief (the first experimenter does not see the hiding of the toy)

-Two boxes were then locked

33
Q

Describe the results of buttelmans violation of expectations experiment

A
  • experimenter attempted to open the box where toy was originally
  • failed to open box
  • asked infant to help
  • the infant chose a box, removed the pin and opened the lid.

False belief: assuming the adult wanted to retrieve the toy, the infant opened the other box, where the toy was now located

True belief: the infant opened the box where the toy was originally. Because the experimenter had seen the location switch, they assumed the experimenter wanted to open the box for some reason other than to retrieve the toy

34
Q

What results from which experiment represent by far the youngest age of false belief understanding in a task with an active behavioural measure?

A

Buttelmans experiment (18 months)

35
Q

If young infants already show theory of mind abilities why does literature still use “4 year old” threshold?

A

-most studies on early false belief report implicit behaviour (looking): while understanding false belief might be possible at a very young age, these infants often cannot explicitly reveal knowledge (they fail the sally Anne task)

This has led to the suggestion that children have “implicit theory of mind” before they have an explicit theory of mind (one that enables them to make explicit judgements)

36
Q

Which factors social or personal can shape theory of mind abilities?

A
  • culture
  • family
  • Parents
  • characteristics of the child
37
Q

Describe what research (Valanides) into culture has found on its effect on theory of mind abilities?

A

British vs Mediterranean adult subjects were compared in their ability to infer what others were thinking after observing a brief sample of their behaviour

  • in general, participants were good predictors.
  • Mediterranean participants were better than the British ones.
  • this difference was entirely accounted by their level of collectivism
  • collectivist culture stresses conformity, reliability and the importance of the collective; an individualistic culture stresses the importance of individuality and uniqueness.
38
Q

How does family affect theory of mind abilities?

A

Having many siblings might lead to the exposure to other points of view and other minds.

39
Q

What does perners research into family and its effect on theory of mind indicate?

A
  • 3 year olds with siblings: more likely to pass false belief test than peers without siblings
  • those with several siblings: more likely than those with 1-2 siblings.
40
Q

What does Jenkins research into family and its effect on theory of mind abilities indicate?

A
  • Having siblings has beneficial effect only for those with older siblings.
  • Children with only younger siblings were no better in false belief test than those with none at all.
41
Q

What confirmed hypothesis are there about family and its effect on theory of mind abilities?

A
  • Having siblings conferred advantage in acknowledging false beleif.
  • greater advantage in those with older rather than younger siblings.
42
Q

What other social factor other than family was even strongly more correlated with children’s success in acknowledging false belief?

A

Larger families tended to be extended rather than nucleus.

There were many more opportunities for adults to interact with children.

-The number of available adults was the best predictor of wether or not a child would succeed in acknowledging false belief.

43
Q

What does Lewis finding suggest about family and its effect on theory of mind abilities?

A

They speak to the effect, on the ability of children to acknowledge false belief, of adults spontaneously, intuitively offering “tutoring” on the characteristics of the mind.

44
Q

Describe Dunn’s procedure and research into how parents affect theory of mind abilities?

A

-observed interactions between mothers and their toddlers aged 33 months old.

  • Some mothers provided a narrative on the actions of people or on the characters in pretend scenarios:
  • They offered many references to psychological motives
  • Other mothers would give commentary on behaviour but without making reference to thoughts:
  • These children did not hear much in the way of psychological explanations of human behaviour.
45
Q

Outline Dunn’s research results on his experiment investigating parents affect on theory of mind abilities?

A

A false belief test was given six months after the mothers provided explanations to their children about others behaviours

Children who passed: parents who had given explanations of behaviour with reference to psychological states.

Children who were unsuccessful: parents who had seldom refereed to psychological states.

-Verbal explanations of psychological states of mind, reasons for action, and feelings, can promote theory of mind abilities in toddlers.

46
Q

How does a child’s characteristics influenced theory of mind abilities?

A

It affects the theory of mind abilities acquisition in interaction with the social environment.

the characteristics of children could shape the way people respond to them, affecting the influence of social input:
-E.G offering explanations to a child with a fractious temperament might be more challenging than offering them to one who has a calmer disposition.

47
Q

Which child characteristic stands out above all other disposition factors?

A

Autism

48
Q

How many people are autistic?

A

Prevalence: 1 in 100

49
Q

Is autism on a spectrum?

A

Yes not simply present or absent.

Particularly heterogenous in how it manifests itself.

50
Q

What is the core diagnostic feature of autism?

A

Defined ate a behavioural level

Currently no reliable biological indicators such as brain abnormalities

51
Q

What is the triad of atypical behaviours displayed by an autistic person?

A

Impairments in social interaction

Impairments in communication

Repetitive behaviour within a narrow set of interests

52
Q

Outline the IQ’s of autistic people?

A

Aspergers syndromes IQ>85

Autism:
High functioning IQ>85
Medium functioning IQ 71-84
Low functioning IQ <70

53
Q

Language abilities of autistic people

A

Asperger’s syndrome : typical

Autism:
High functioning : delayed
Medium functioning: rudimentary
Low functioning: limited/absent

54
Q

What is the central coherence hypothesis developed by frith with regards to autism?

A

Autism is related to lack of central coherence, reflected in the tendency to process information piecemeal, rather than to integrate it.

55
Q

Describe the procedure of an embedded figures test?

A

Locating a ‘hidden figures (e.g triangle) in a larger more complex design.

56
Q

What is field independent?

A

Individuals locate the hidden shape more quickly, being more ready to perceive the constituent parts.

57
Q

What is field dependent?

A

Individuals process the ‘whole and are less likely to perpetually deconstruct the visual array into constituent parts

58
Q

Are indicators with autism field dependent or independent ?

A

Field independent ( their tendency to process details in this specific way is viewed as processing bias and not an impairment)

59
Q

What is the executive function hypothesis on autism?

A

Autism might be related to deficit in executive function.

60
Q

What is executive function?

A

The ability to maintain an appropriate problem-solving set for attainment of a future goal.

61
Q

What behaviours are included in executive function?

A 
Planning 
Impulse control and inhibition of irrelevant responses 
Problem solving set maintenance
Organized search 
Flexibility of though and action
62
Q

What behaviours in autistic children display that they have executive function deficits?

A

Rigid and inflexible : they often become distressed over trivial environmental changes, and insist on following routines in precise detail.

Preservative: They often focus on one narrow interest or respectively engage in one stereotyped behaviour.

Not future-oriented: They do not anticipate long-term consequences of behaviour well, and have great difficulty self reflecting and self monitoring.

Impulsive: they seem unable to delay or inhibit responses.

63
Q

What is the theory of mind hypothesis for autism?

A

The view that people with autism have difficulties in understanding that others have thoughts and beliefs.

64
Q

How will people with autism perform on a false belief test?

A

Typically developing children will pass it around the age of 4 children with autism will generally fail.

This indicates they have an impoverished level of social understanding.

65
Q

What is Wings triad of impairments characteristic of autism?

A

Impairments in:
Social relationships
Communication
Imagination

66
Q

How is lack of imagination displayed in autistic children?

A

It is notable in pretend play:

-Autistic children are severely impaired in their pretend play production, compared to typical children, and those with other disorders.

67
Q

What did Leslie suggest a correspondence between in autistic children with regards to lack of imagination?

A

The imaginative disengagement from current reality needed for false belief.

The imaginative disengagement from current reality exhibited in pretend play.

68
Q

How is socialisation and communication affected by autism?

A

Autistic children have and underdeveloped theory of mind.
-therefore are in danger of misjudging social situations, of acting in an inappropriate way, and of saying inappropriate things.

Social skills often depends on being able to diagnose other people’s sensitivities, attitudes and knowledge.

69
Q

Describe the false photo test conducted by leslie

A

A doll sat on a box (scene 1) and the participant took a phot of it.

The doll was then moved to a mat (scene 2)

Participants were asked which scene (1 or 2) would show in the developed photo.

Autistic children can pass this test but not a false belief test.

70
Q

What did Cassidy find in adults who had autism?

A

Less capable of retrodicting (guessing what causes a reaction) events involved in recognition of genuine and feigned positive emotions

71
Q

What is suggested about autistic individuals who pass a simple false belief test?

A

Second order belief attribution:

-Not what a person thinks about an aspect of reality

But

What a person thinks another person thinks about an aspect of reality

-Individuals with autism who pass a simple test of false belief fail this more complex test more frequently than those typical developing, or with Down’s syndrome.

72
Q

What evidence shows us that autism is on a spectrum?

A

Some autistic adults pass both order belief tests and can process both simple and complex beliefs.

Therefore it is not a single entity, it is complex and cannot be reduced to one single cause/affected area or one explanation

Developmental Psychology (11 decks)

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