4.3.4 cognition and development ADVANCED INFO Flashcards

Question

outline one limitation of piagets theory of cognitive development - cannot explain development in all children , biased sample

Answer 1

piaget saw learning as a motivated process in which children learn in order to equilbrate beause disequilbrium is such an unpleasant experience . but children vary greatly in their intellectual curiosity . it may be that piaget over estimated just how motivated children are to learning because he studied mainly children from the same nursery attached to his university . this is a biased sample as the children all came from predominantly white middle class well educated families. children from poorer backgrounds may have less educational oppurtunities may display more or less intellectual curiosity than middle or upper class children. therefore piagets theory cannot account for all cognitive development in all children

Answer 2

one limitation of piagets theory of cognitve developemnt is that it may have underplayed the role/ importance of language. the development of language is an important aspect of cognitive development . to piaget language was just a cognitive ability that developed in line with other learning abiities . however , other theorists have placed a lot more importance on the role of language development. this is a limitation as piaget is failing to give proper recognition to a key factor in learning which is widely recognised by other psychologists. therefore reducing the validity of piagets theory

Answer 3

piaget identified four stages of intellectual development . each stage is characterised by a different level of reasoning ability . although the exact ages vary between the children , all children develop through the same sequence of stages.

Answer 4

object permanence is the ability to realise that an object still exists when it passes out of the visual field

Answer 5

the ability to realise that the quantity remains the same even when the appearance of an object or group of objects changes.

Answer 6

egocentrism is the childs tendency to only be able to see the world from their own point of view

Answer 7

class inclusion an advanced classification skill in which we recognised that classes of objects have subsets and are themsleves subsets of larger classes.

Answer 8

sensorimotor stage (0-2 years) pre-operational stage (2-7 years) concrete operations stage (7-11 years) formal operations stage (11 years +)

Answer 9

Sensorimotor stage - 0–2 years babies Focus on physical sensations and basic co-ordination between what they see and their body movement. Come to understand other people are separate objects and acquire some basic language. Object permanence develops after around 8 months. This is the belief that an object still exists when it goes out of view.

Answer 10

Piaget found that object permanence develops around 8 months. He hid an object under a cloth and observed whether children would continue to reach for the object. Before 8 months, the children immediately switched their attention away but after 8 months, they continued to reach for it suggesting they understood it still existed

Answer 11

Object permanence may occur at a much younger age than Piaget theorised. Bower and Wishart (1972) found that infants aged 1 to 4 months continued to reach for an object for up to 90 seconds after the lights were turned out. The baby may have been distracted by the cloth in Piaget’s original study, meaning that they did not continue to search from the object when it went out of sight. This reduces the validity of Piaget’s work.

Answer 12

pre-operational stage - 2-7 years children cannot conserve children are egocentric children find class inclusion difficult

Answer 13

piaget showed children two rows of counters and asked them to confirm how they were the same . he then saced out one row of counters and asked if they were still the same or if there were more counters in either of the rows . pre operational stage children often said that they were no longer the samw which demonstrated that they could not conserve . this study was also demonstrated with playdough to test mass and liquid to test volume , the results were the same.

Answer 14

Piaget underestimated the ability of children in the pre-operational stage. McGarrigle and Donaldson (1974) found that children aged 4 to 6 could conserve, if they were not put off by the way they were questioned. If the counters were moved accidentally by a ‘naughty teddy’ then 72% of children under 7 correctly said the number was the same as before. The reason that the children performed poorly in Piaget’s study was because hearing two questions from the researcher prompted them to change their original answer. Piaget’s tests of conservation therefore lacked validity.

Answer 15

piaget and inhelder showed children a model of three mountains and placed a doll at different viewing angle to the child . they then asked the children to identify the dolls view from a set of pictures. pre operational children were not able to do this

Answer 16

There is evidence to suggest egocentrism can occur before 7 years old. Hughes (1975) showed children a model with four walls in a cross layout. The model contained two dolls – a boy and a policeman. The policeman doll was placed at different locations and the children were asked to say whether the policeman could see the boy doll. It was found that 90% of 3½ to 5-year-olds could understand two viewpoints at the same time. This contradicts Piaget’s claim that children could not understand another person’s viewpoint at this age.

Answer 17

piaget showed 7-8 year olds pictures of five dogs and two cats and asked whether there was more dogs or animals in the picture . children at this stage tended to say there were more dogs suggesting they could not simultaneously see a dog as a member of the dog class and the animal class.

Answer 18

There is evidence to suggest class inclusion can occur before 7 years old. Siegler and Svetina (2006) found that children of 5 could successfully complete a similar type of task to what was done in Piaget’s original study if they were given an accurate explanation of class inclusion at the start of the experiment. The difficulty of Piaget’s tasks meant the children could not show that they understood class inclusion. They can show this ability on tasks that are easier to understand.

Answer 19

Concrete Operations - 7–11 years From the age of around seven most children can conserve and perform much better on tasks of egocentrism and class inclusion. Children still have reasoning problems- they are only able to reason or operate on physical operations in their presence. They struggle to reason about abstract ideas and to imagine objects/ situations they can not see.

Answer 20

Formal Operations - 11 years + Abstract reasoning develops- children can think beyond the here and now in a scientific way. Children can focus on an argument and not be distracted by its content. This formal reasoning can be tested using syllogisms.

Answer 21

Smith et al. (1998) found that children younger than this stage struggled with syllogistic reasoning tasks such as working out “how many heads a yellow cat has if all yellow cats have two heads?”. Children answered with “one” when the answer to this abstract task is two. They were too distracted by the content to think in a logical way.

Answer 22

Piaget over-estimated the abilities of adolescents. Bradmetz (1999) showed that out of 62 children tested at age 15, only one could reliably show formal reasoning whereas Piaget said this developed at age 11. It is clear now that children at 11-year-old cannot think in an adult way.

Answer 23

Piaget took a ‘domain-general’ view (that intellectual development is a single process and that all cognition develops together) of cognitive development that not all psychologists agree with. Studies of children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) suggest that intellectual abilities develop independently to social cognition abilities. This suggests that Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is not valid and that a ‘domain-specific’ theory is more appropriate for some examples of development.

Answer 24

the gap between a childs current level of development , defined by the cognitive tasks they can perform unaided and what they can potentially do with the right help from a more expert other, who may be an adult or a more advanced child.

Answer 25

an approach to instruction that aims to support a learner only when absolutely necessary e.g to provide a support a framework to assist the learning process . it helps the learner to cross the zone of proximal development and advance as much as they can , given their stage of development

Answer 26

vygotsky saw cognitive development as a social process of learning from more experienced others - "experts". according to vygotsky every function in the childs cognitive development appears twice . knowledge is the first , intermental which is the social level and then intramental which is the individual level

Answer 27

knowledge first appears as intermental , this is between the more and less expert individual . this is the social level.

Answer 28

knowledge appears secondly as intramental knowledge. thisis within the mind of the less expert individual . this is the individual level

Answer 29

vygotsky proposed that children are born with elementary mental processes such as perception and memory . these are transformed into higher mental functions such as the use of mathematical systems by the influence of culture.

Answer 30

elementary functions are a biological and a form of natural development

Answer 31

higher mental functions are exclusively human . the role of culture is to transform elementary mental functions into higher mental functions.

Answer 32

a child learns through problem solving experiences shared with someone else , usually a parent or teacher but also more competent peers. all people with greater knowledge are called experts. initially the person interacting with the child assumes most of the responsibility for guiding the problem solving activity , but gradually this responsibility transfers to the child.

Answer 33

vygotsky believed that culture is transmitted by experts using semiotics . language is a semiotic system of foremost importance but mathematical symbols are valuable too. therefore language and maths are the means by which culture is transmitted from expert to child. to begin with language takes the form of shared dialogues between adult and child (pre-intellectual speech) but as the child develops mental representation they begin to communicate with themselves , in this way language (semiotics) enables intellectual development

Answer 34

semiotics are the signs and symbols developed within a particular culture

Answer 35

if reasoning abilities are aquired from the more experienced individuals with whom a child has contact , it makes sense that the child will aquire the reasoning abilities of these people. there may be cultural differences in cognitive development with children picking up the mental tools that are most important within THEIR physical , social and work environments.

Answer 36

a childs zone of proximal development (ZPD) is the region where cognitive development takes place. vygotsky believed that learning precedes development. vygotsky thought that learning or cognitive development does not take place in the area of current development e.g where the child already is , or in a place too far ahead of what teh child can already do indepedently . in the first instance nothing new would be learned and in the second instance the new challenges would be too far from the childs knowledge to be useful. according to vygotsky the ZPD is the only zone where learning can take place.

Answer 37

scaffolding is the term used to describe the process of assisting a learner through the ZPD the expert creates a scaffod , which is gradually withdrawn when the child is more able to work independently. vygotsky identified 5 aspects to scaffolding which are general ways in which an adult can help a child to better undertand and perform a task.

Answer 38

recruitment reduction of degrees of freedom direction maintenance marking critical features demonstration

Answer 39

engaging a childs interest in a task

Answer 40

focusing the child on a task and where to start with solving it

Answer 41

encouraging the child in order to help them to stay motivated and continue trying to complete the task.

Answer 42

highlighting the most important parts of the task

Answer 43

showing the child how to do aspects of the task

Answer 44

generally as a learner crosses the ZPD the level of help given in scaffolding declines from level 5-1 , adult gradually withdraws level of help as child grasps the task, level 5 demonstration level 4 preparation for child level 3 indication of materials level 2 specific verbal instructions level 1 general prompts

Answer 45

piaget believed that cogntive development is driven by a childs in built tendency to adapt to new experiences. vygotsky believed cognitive development is driven by social interaction within a culture

Answer 46

piaget believed cognitive development is mostly the same universally vygotsky believed that cognitive development differs from culture to culture and one historical era to the next.

Answer 47

piaget believed that understanding occurrs through the process of adaptation of schemas vygotsky believed that understanding occurs through social experience

Answer 48

piaget places emphasis on both nature and nurture , adaptive processes and maturation of brain and body (nature) combining with children responding to the demands of the environment in ways that meet their own goals (nurture). vyotsky placed emphasis on nature and nurture , believed that heredity (nature) and dialogues with more expert members of society (nurture) contribue jointly to development.

Answer 49

piaget believed that learners progress through the stages of intellectual development with age , and learn increasingly more complex information and skills as they get older. vygotsky believed children learn increasingly more complex information as they get older through the performance of more difficult tasks with the help of a more advanced individual.

Answer 50

There is support for the zone of proximal development. Roazzi and Bryant (1998) found that 4-5-year olds performed better on a ‘number of sweets’ challenge when working with peers rather than alone. This demonstrated that children could develop more advanced reasoning skills when working with more expert people. This suggests that the zone of proximal development is a valid concept.

Answer 51

There is support for the idea of scaffolding. Conner and Cross (2003) observed 45 children at intervals between the ages of 16 and 54 months, finding that mothers used less direct intervention as children developed. This shows how the level of help given by an expert partner declines over time. This study is particularly important because it explains what happens during the support, it does not just show that scaffolding occurs in learning.

Answer 52

Vygotsky’s ideas have been highly influential in education. Van Keer and Verhaeghe (2005) found that 7-year-olds tutored by 19-year-olds, in addition to whole class teaching, progressed further in reading than a control group who only had class teaching. This suggests that children can learn more and faster with appropriate scaffolding. This has raised expectations of what children should be able to achieve.

Answer 53

Children that learn together do not pick up similar skills and mental representation of material. Howe et al. (1992) found that 9-12-year-olds who had group discussions about the movement of objects down a slope showed better understanding after the discussion but did not all pick up on the same facts. This suggests that even when children experience the same interaction or experience, they do not necessarily have the same level of cognitive development. This suggests Piaget’s view of cognitive development occurring in stages and the child being unable to learn some concepts until they are ready could be along the right lines.

Answer 54

Vygotsky assumed that the process of learning are largely the same in all children. Some children learn best during social interaction but this may not be true for everyone. Personality and style of information processing may have powerful effects on what sort of activities and what sort of help works for different children. Vygotsky’s theory therefore does not take account of individual differences.

Answer 55

social cognition describes the mental processes we use to make use of when engaged in social interaction . for example when we make decisions on how to behave based on our understanding of a social situation. both the understanding and the decision making are cognitive processes

Answer 56

our ability to appreciate a social situation from the point of view of other people. this cognitive ability underlies muchof our social interaction.

Answer 57

30 boys and 30 girls took part , 20 aged 4 , 20 aged 5 and 20 aged 6 all were indiviudally given a task designed to measure role taking ability this is involved asking them how each person felt in a various scenario .

Answer 58

a number of distinct levels of role taking were identified. selman found that the the level of role role taking correlated with age , suggesting a clear developmental sequence.

Answer 59

holly an 8 year old girl who likes to climb trees , she is best treee climber in the neighbourhood . one day when climbing she falls of the tree but does not hurt herself. her father sees this and is upset and asks her to promise not to climb trees again , holly promises. later that day hollys friend seans kitten is caught up in a tree and cannot get down , something has to be done right away or the kitten may fall ,holly is the only one who climbs trees well enough to reach the kitten but she remembers her promise to her father.

Answer 60

based on the childrens typical responses to perspective takig scenarios at different stages , selman proposed 5 stages of social cognitive development stage 0 - socially egocentric stage 1 - social information role taking stage 2 - self reflective role taking stage 3 - mutual role taking stage 4 - social and conventional system role taking selman believed that development through these stages is based on maturity and experience

Answer 61

Stage 0 – Socially Egocentric 3-6 years The child cannot reliably distinguish between their own emotions and those of others. They can generally identify emotional states in others but do not understand what social behaviour might have caused them. e.g hollys father will not be mad because whatever is right for holly is right for others , her father will feel as she does

Answer 62

Stage 1 – Social Information Role Taking 6-8 years The child can tell the difference between their own point of view and that of another, but they can usually focus on only one of these perspectives. e.g hollys father would not be mad if holly shows him the kitten and he would change his mind

Answer 63

Stage 2 – Self Reflective Role Taking 8-10 years The child can put themselves in the position of another person and fully appreciate their perspective. They can, however, only take on board on point of view at a time. e.g hollys father would not be mad because he will understand why holly saved the kitten

Answer 64

Stage 3 – Mutual Role Taking 10-12 years Children are now able to look at a situation from their own and another’s point of view at the same time. e.g hollys father will not be mad because he can understand both their points of view

Answer 65

Stage 4 – Social and Conventional System Role Taking 12 years + Young people become able to see that sometimes understanding others’ viewpoints is not enough to allow people to reach agreement. This is why social conventions are needed to keep order. e.g hollys father will not be mad because the humane treatment of animals is important

Answer 66

Schultz, Selman and La Russo (2003) have identified three aspects to social development. Interpersonal Understanding – take different roles then this shows we can understand social situations. Interpersonal Negotiation Strategies – develop skills in how to respond to them. Awareness of Personal Meaning of Relationships – ability to reflect on social behaviour in the context of life history and the full range of relationships

Answer 67

An interesting outcome of perspective-taking is the ability to deceive. deception entails a child being able to plant a false belief in someone elses mind. Cole (1986) found that children of this age were able to hide their disappointment when they received the worst present (rather than the best one), if they were being watched by others, but they did show disappointment when filmed secretly on their own.

Answer 68

There is supporting evidence to show that perspective-taking improves with age. Cross-sectional studies such as Selman (1971) found that there were significant positive correlations between age and the ability to take different perspectives in scenarios, like that of Holly and the kitten, using children aged 4 to 6. Longitudinal follow up studies such as Gurucharri and Selman (1982) found that perspective taking develops with age in each child. This shows that there is strong evidence that social cognitive abilities do improve with age and are not just the result of individual differences in social-cognitive ability in children in different groups.

Answer 69

Research suggests children with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and those on the autistic spectrum have problems with perspective taking. Marton et al. (2009) compared 50 8-12-year olds with a diagnosis of ADHD with a control group on performance on perspective-taking tasks. Those with ADHD did worse on understanding the scenarios, identifying the feelings of each person involved and evaluating the consequences of different actions. This is a strength of Selman’s work because the research has useful applications to understanding atypical development in social cognition.

Answer 70

Selman’s methods have allowed us to research cultural differences in perspective-taking. Wu and Keysar (2007) found that young adult Chinese participants did significantly better in perspective-taking than matched Americans. This shows that there is more to the development of perspective-taking than just cognitive maturity because the differences must be due to different cultural inputs. strength as allowed us to research/limitation as there is more than just perspective taking, Hamburger

Answer 71

There is mixed evidence for the importance of perspective taking. Buijzen and Valkenburg (2008) found a negative correlation between age, perspective taking and coercive behaviour i.e. trying to force parents to buy them things. This suggests that perspective-taking is important in developing prosocial (nice) behaviour. However, Gasser and Keller (2009) found that bullies displayed no difficulties in perspective taking. This is a problem for Selman’s approach as it suggests perspective-taking may not be an important factor in the development of socially desirable behaviour

Answer 72

This explanation of perspective taking could be seen as ‘overly cognitive’. Selman’s approach does not consider other factors such as the development of empathy, emotional self-regulation, family climate and opportunities to learn from peer interaction. There is more to children’s social development than their developing cognitive abilities and this is not considered.

Answer 73

theory of mind is our personal understanding of what other people are thinking and feeling . it is some times called mind reading

Answer 74

false belief is the understanding that others may hold and act on mistaken false beliefs

Answer 75

an umbrella term for a wide range of symmptoms . all disorders on the spectrum share impairments to three main areas , empathy , social interaction and social imagination.

Answer 76

a mental disorder which usually appears in early childhood and typically involves the avoidance of social contact , abnormal language and so called stereoptypical behaviours

Answer 77

a story about two dolls. sally does not know that her marble has moved but the audience do . this test is used to test whether a child has theory of mind.

Answer 78

intentional reasoning research - assess emergence of simple TOM in toddlers false belief tasks - asseses more sophisticated ToM Eyes task - assesses ToM in older children and adults , participants judge complex emotions with minimal info about facial expressions

Answer 79

procedure - Children of 18 months observed adults place beads into a jar. In the experimental condition the adults appeared to struggle with this and dropped then beads. In the control condition the adults placed the beads successfully in the jar. findings - In both conditions, the toddlers placed the beads in the jar; they dropped no more beads in the experimental condition. This suggests they were imitating what the adult INTENDED to do. conclusions-This kind of research shows that very young children have simple ToM

Answer 80

procedure- They told 3-4 year olds a story in which Maxi left his chocolate in a blue cupboard in the kitchen and the want to the playground. Later, Maxi’s mother used some of the chocolate in her cooking and placed the remainder in the green cupboard. Children were asked where Maxi would look for his chocolate when he comes back from the playground. findings -Most 3-year olds incorrectly said that he would look in the green cupboard. They know that it is in the green cupboard, but do not realise that Maxi doesn’t know his mother moved it. However, most 4-year olds correctly identified the blue cupboard. conclusions- This suggests that ToM undergoes a shift and becomes more advanced at around four years.

Answer 81

Baron-Cohen et al (1985) created a false belief task called the Sally-Anne Task. Children were told a story involving two dolls, Sally and Anne. Sally places a marble in her basket, but when Sally is not looking Anne moves the marble to her box. The task is to work out where Sally will look for her marble. Understanding that Sally does not know that Anne has moved the marble requires an understanding of Sally’s false believes about where it is. 20 high functioning children diagnosed with ASD and control groups of 14 children with Down’s syndrome and 27 without a diagnosis were individually administered the Sally-Anne study.

Answer 82

85% of children in the control groups correctly identified where Sally would look for her marble. 20% of children in the ASD group correctly answered. This difference demonstrated that ASD involves a ToM deficit. Barhon-Cohen and his colleagues suggested that deficits in ToM might be a complete explanation for ASD.

Answer 83

Studies of older children and adults with AS showed that this group succeeded easily on false belief tasks. This contradicted the idea that ASD can be explained by ToM deficits. The Eyes Task involves reading complex emotions in pictures of faces just showing a small area around the eyes. Barhon-Cohen et al (1997) found that adults with AS and those with a diagnosis of high-functioning ASD struggled with the Eyes Task. Adults on the autistic spectrum had a mean score of 16.3 compared to ‘typical’ participants with a mean score of 20.3 out of a maximum of 25. This supports the ideas that ToM decificts might be the cause of ASD.

Answer 84

The fact that ToM appears to develop at a particular age and the fact that it is likely to be absent in many people with autism suggests a biological basis. Baron-Cohen (1995) has proposed a ToM module (ToMM), which is a specific mechanism that matures in the brain around the age of four and explains an individual’s ability to understand the mental states of other people. with the development of ToM comes the ability to manipulate and decieve others by hiding ones emotions and intentions , this occurs from three years of age

Answer 85

False belief tasks lack validity. Bloom and German (2000) suggest that success on a false belief task requires other cognitive abilities apart from Theory of Mind for example memory. The Sally-Anne story is quite long for a 3 year old to remember. This is problematic as Theory of Mind research is dominated by false belief research.

Answer 86

Many of the methods used to study Theory of Mind could simply measure perspective-taking. For example, responses to the Sally-Anne task could be explained in terms of children’s ability to take Sally’s perspective. Theory of Mind is therefore hard to distinguish from perspective taking. This challenges the validity of Theory of Mind research if it is just measuring the ability to view social situations from another person’s point of view.

Answer 87

Theory of mind research has been useful in helping us understand the differing experiences of those on the autistic spectrum and those who are “neurotypical”. It is widely agreed that people on the autistic spectrum have more difficulty than others on age-appropriate Theory of Mind tests. However, the suggestion by Baron-Cohen that autism spectrum disorder is the direct result of Theory of Mind has been questioned. Tager-Flusberg (2007) suggests that more recent research has questioned the assumption that Theory of Mind problems are specific to ASD and that all those on the autism spectrum suffer Theory of Mind problems.

Answer 88

There is no clear understanding of how Theory of Mind develops. Perner et al (2002) adopt a Piagetian approach and see Theory of Mind as simply developing in line with all cognitive abilities. But Wilde Astington (1998) takes a more Vygotskian approach and suggests that we internalise our Theory of Mind during early interactions with adults. If we do not know how Theory of Mind develops, it cannot be used as a causal explanation for ASD.

Answer 89

The Eyes Task lacks validity. The experience of looking at a static pair of eyes in isolation is very different from real life where we usually have access to more additional information. This questions the Theory of Mind research as it suggests that the theory is not standing on an acceptable level of empirically based ideas. It may be that the concepts are difficult to test but, until they are, the theory cannot be regarded as valid.

Answer 90

mirror neuron are neurons that fire both in response to personal action and in response to action on the part of others

Answer 91

gallese and goldman suggested that mirror neurons respond not just to observed actions but also to intentions behind behaviour. they believe that we do not just interepret peoples actions with reference to our memory but that we stimulate others actions in our motor system and experience their intentions using our mirror neurons.

Answer 92

Twenty-three right handed subjects (male and female) watched three film clips of visual stimuli. 1. Context only - scenes containing objects. 2. Action only- grasping hand actions without a context. 3. Intention- context with an action which was either drinking or cleaning up. The researchers investigated whether the observation of the same grasping action elicited the same or different activity in mirror neuron areas for grasping in the human brain. fMRI scanning was used to measure brain activity.

Answer 93

Observing grasping actions embedded in contexts (the intention clips) yielded greater activity in mirror neuron areas in the inferior frontal cortex, associated with grasping, than observing actions without contexts or while observing contexts only. Premotor mirror neuron areas (areas active during the execution and the observation of an action) previously thought to be involved only in action recognition are also involved in understanding the intentions of others, which is the basis of empathy.

Answer 94

Stuss et al (2001) reported that individuals with damage to their frontal lobes (where the motor cortex is located) were often unable to empathise with and read other people’s intentions and were easy to deceive. This suggests damage to the mirror neuron system and emphasises its important in typical human social cognition.

Answer 95

It has been suggested that mirror neurons are important in theory of mind and the ability to take others’ perspectives. Might give us a neural mechanism for experiencing and understanding other people’s perspectives and emotional states. It may allow us to interpret what others are thinking and feeling.

Answer 96

Ramachandran (2011) suggested that mirror neurons are so important that they have shaped human evolution. The uniquely complex social interactions we have as humans require a brain system that facilitates an understanding of intention, emotion and perspective. Without these cognitive abilities we would not be able to live in the large groups with the complex social roles and rules that characterise human culture.

Answer 97

If children with ASD can be shown to have a poor mirror neuron system then this may go a long way to explaining ASD. Ramachandran and Oberman (2006) have proposed the “broken mirror” theory of ASD. The idea that neurological deficits including dysfunction in the mirror neuron system prevent a developing child imitating and understanding social behaviour in others. this manifests itself in infancy when Children later diagnosed with ASD typically mimic adult behaviour less than others. Problems with the mirror neuron system lead to difficulties in social communication as children to not develop the usual abilities to read intentions and emotion in others.

Answer 98

There is evidence to support an important role for mirror neurons in human social cognition. Haker et al (2012) demonstrated that Brodmann’s area 9 in the right frontal lobe, an area of the brain believed to be rich in mirror neurons, is involved in contagious yawning. This is widely seen as an example of human empathy and thus the ability to perceive mental states in others showing that mirror neurons play a role in empathy.

Answer 99

There is evidence to support an important role for mirror neurons in human social cognition. Mouras et al (2008) asked male participants to watch either a fishing documentary, Mr Bean or heterosexual pornography. Brain activity was measured using an fMRI and arousal by a pressure sensitive penis ring. Pars opercularis activity was seen immediately before sexual arousal. Pars opercularis is a region of the brain believed to be rich in mirror neurons so the findings are consistent with the idea that mirror neurons play a role in perspective taking.

Answer 100

Evidence for mirror neuron activity comes from brain scanning. Brain scans such as fMRI’s identify activity levels in regions of the brain but do not allow us to measure activity in individual brain cells. Researchers are therefore inferring that activity in parts of the brain means activity in mirror neurons. Therefore, there is a lack of direct evidence for mirror neuron activity in humans.

Answer 101

There is evidence for atypical mirror neuron function in ASD. Hadjikhani (2007) reviewed evidence for the link between ASD and a deficit in mirror neuron function and found some support. Structural brain scans have shown a smaller average thickness for the pars opercularis (an area believed to be rich in mirror neurons) in participants with ASD. Studies using functional scans have shown lower activity in brain areas associated with mirror neurons in participants with ASD. However, not all findings have been replicated consistently so the evidence linking ASD to mirror neurons is mixed. This is a problem for the broken mirror theory of ASD as there is a lack of reliable direct evidence to support the theory.

Answer 102

There are questions over the precise role of mirror neurons. Hickok suggests mirror neuron activity may have more to do with using others’ behaviour to plan our own, rather than understanding the cognitions behind it. Researchers should provide better evidence to support their claims of the role of mirror neurons in social cognition.