Social Cognition (Understanding People) and Austism

Question 1

• Social cognition involves understanding others’ intensions, desires, and beliefs and how these influence behavior

Answer 1

o The ability to think and reason about our own and other people’s thoughts, feelings, motives, and behaviors

Question 2

Naïve psychology

Answer 2

o Common sense understanding of human behavior in terms of mental causes
o Even infants seem to have natural intuition about how people “work”

Question 3

Theory of Mind

Answer 3

o Children who develop theory of mind earlier are more popular with their peers; while children who develop theory of mind later are rejected by their peers
o Talking to children about feelings and their cues can support theory of mind
Develops between ages 1-5
• By age 2, children understand that desires influence behavior
• Ability to understand someone else’s beliefes can be different than your own doesn’t develop until about age 5 (false belief task, unexpected transfer)

Question 4

One characteristic of austism is poor social cognition

Answer 4

oProblems with verbal and non-verbal communication
oRepetitive behavior or narrow, obsessive interests
oDifficulties with social interaction/ cognition

Question 5

Problems with verbal and non-verbal communication (autism)

Answer 5

• Delayed speech

* Problems with turn taking and gesturing

Question 6

Difficulties with social interaction/ cognition

Answer 6

• Don’t play interactively with other children
• Problems with joint attention
• Fail “theory of mind” tasks

Question 7

Improved diagnosis (of austism- why more cases?)

Answer 7

• Changing criteria

* Broader range of symptoms falling on spectrum

Question 8

Recent environmental influences

Answer 8

• Several candidates, but no specific environmental influence has been identified