Week 2.3.1: Interacting with Others Flashcards
The mental processes used to understand and make sense of the world, including perception, memory, visual processing, attention, reasoning, and problem-solving.
Cognition
2 Domains of Cognition
Cold (Basic) Cognition: Refers to perception, memory, visual processing, attention, reasoning, and problem-solving.
Hot (Social) Cognition: Involves information processing within social and emotional contexts.
Intact Basic Cognition: Individuals may have strong skills in areas like memory and problem-solving.
Social Cognitive Deficits: They might struggle with understanding social cues or engaging in social interactions.
High-functioning Autism
Impaired Basic Cognition: Individuals may have difficulties with tasks requiring memory or attention.
Strong Social Skills: They often excel in social interactions and understanding emotions.
Williams Syndrome
People who can function intellectually but not socially.
Acquired Brain Damage
These processes help us understand what behaviors are appropriate in social contexts.
Social Cognitive Processes
The ability to infer one’s own and others’ mental states, such as beliefs, intentions, and emotions.
Also known as perspective taking or mentalising.
Theory of Mind
The ability to identify and interpret emotions in oneself and others, often through facial expressions.
Measurement Methods: Include facial displays, vocal cues, and passive observation.
Emotion Recognition/Perception
Understanding social cues and norms, and having knowledge about social roles and relationships.
Social Perception and Knowledge
How individuals explain the causes of events, particularly whether they attribute outcomes to internal (self) or external (others/situations) factors
Attribution Style
Arranging pictures in a sequence that makes sense based on the characters’ mental states.
Picture Sequencing
Tasks where individuals determine if a character holds a belief that is false.
False-Belief Identification
Understanding hints, sarcasm, irony, or humor in social interactions.
Interpretations of Indirect Speech
Tasks where individuals interpret the mental states of characters rather than participating directly in the interaction.
Third-Person Perspective
Understanding social cues and relationships. such as intimacy or status within a social context.
Example: Judging whether a conversation between two people is formal or informal based on their body language and tone of voice.
Social Perception
Awareness of roles, rules, and goals that characterize social situations and guide interactions.
Example: Knowing that you should shake hands with a doctor rather than hugging them.
Social Knowledge
How one explains the causes of positive and negative outcomes, and how the meaning of events is based on one’s attribution of their cause.
Attribution
What are the types of Attributions?
External Personal Attributions: Causes attributed to other people.
External Situational Attributions: Causes attributed to situational factors.
Internal Attributions: Causes attributed to oneself.
A tool used to measure causal attributions
Internal, Personal, and Situational Attributions Questionnaire (IPSAQ)
A network of brain regions consistently activated in response to social stimuli, involved in social cognition and behavior
Social Brain Network
Mirror processes in the brain that occur when watching another person perform actions or express emotions.
Example: Watching someone smile and feeling happy yourself because your brain mirrors their emotion.
Experience Sharing
The response to seeing an unpleasant or pleasant image, assessed through self-reported responses or physiological reactions like skin conductance.
Example: Feeling discomfort when seeing a disturbing image, measured by your skin’s reaction.
Emotion Experience
Self-reflective strategies, such as reappraisal, used to manage and calm emotions.
Example: Taking deep breaths and rethinking a stressful situation to calm yourself down.
Emotion Regulation
Involved in both affect sharing (empathizing with others’ emotions) and emotional experience
Anterior Insula
Involved in face perception, emotion experience, and emotion regulation
Amygdala
Specialized for facial recognition
Fusiform Face Area (FFA)
A network of brain regions active during resting states or when a person is not focused on external tasks.
Function: Involved in unconstrained, non-task-related cognition, such as daydreaming, thinking about oneself and others, and recalling memories
Default Mode Network (DMN)
What is the overlap between DMN and Social Cognitive Processing?
Brain areas activated during social cognitive tasks overlap with regions of the DMN.
This overlap suggests that when people are not focused on specific tasks, they naturally think about social interactions and relationships, reflecting the inherently social nature of humans.
Processes voices and sounds.
Superior Temporal Gyrus
Helps with language and voice perception.
Inferior Frontal Gyrus
Important for emotional memories.
Anterior Hippocampus
Regulates emotional responses.
Anterior Cingulate Cortex
Involved in controlling and regulating emotions.
Dorsolateral and Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex
Involved in understanding others’ thoughts and feelings (Theory of Mind).
Temporoparietal Junction, Temporal Poles, Precuneus, and Medial Prefrontal Cortex
