Childhood cognitive development [2]

Question 1

What is Theory of Mind?

Answer 1

‘Ability to attribute mental states onto both oneself and others, understanding that other’s mental states and perceptions are different to our own’
–> Theory of mind encompasses a particular development of social cognition where low level processes and high level processes are linked

Question 2

Morton and Johnson, 1991&raquo_space; theory of mind structural hypothesis?

Answer 2

• From being infants we are looking at faces to gather cues regarding external states, but learning is needed to be able to understand them. This is driven by 2 mechanisms:
  CONSPEC&raquo_space; visual perceptual device which allows orientation to face-like stimuli
  CONLEARN&raquo_space; the process of learning about faces by paying attention to them

Question 3

Why is following eye gaze important?

Answer 3

• Evolutionarily advantageous (promotes survival to perhaps also pay attention to threatening stimulus?)
• Important to understand the mental states of others
• Language, social and emotional development
• Social referencing (Bowlby, 1969)

Question 4

How can we test for theory of mind? (Classical study - unexpected transfer)

Answer 4

Baron-Cohen et al (1985) - FALSE BELIEF TASK

Unexpected transfer task –> ‘Sally-Anne task’ > children pass around age 4/5, indicating that they have achieved TOM

Question 5

How can we test for theory of mind? (Classical study - unexpected contents)

Answer 5

Perner et al, (1987) - Smarties task
Ask what contents are inside a smarties tube, open and show them that there is in fact a pencil inside. Then tell going to show a friend, and ask what they think the friend will say. If they have TOM, they will say ‘Smarties’.

Question 6

Criticisms - false belief task? What did Clements and Perner (1994) show?

Answer 6

• Too complex for children to understand?
• The understanding of the task partly dependent on verbal ability of child
• Perner and Clements (1994) showed that children were able to pass the task when using an explicit measure (eye gaze as an implicit measure of belief) – shows that children understood the task but couldn’t verbalise their though processes?

Question 7

Factors impacting TOM

Answer 7

Verbal ability (Perner and Clements)
Family size and interactions (increased size of family = increased TOM) >> Meins et al (2002)
ASD

Question 8

What is ASD and what are the main symptoms?

Answer 8

Developmental disorder, involving:

• Impaired social interactions (eye contact, impaired reading of social cues, poor peer relations and empathy)
• Language problems (lack of functional language)
• Repetitive behaviours (repetitive but incoherent speech patterns, stimming behaviours)
• Defective TOM!!!!

Question 9

Origins of ASD

Answer 9

• Genetics
• Above - average brain size
• Decreased cerebellum and frontal/parietal lobes relative to rest of brain
• Atypical hippocampus/amygdala (limbic system)

Question 10

Baron-Cohen, Leslie and Frith (1985) - using false belief tasks in children with ASD?

Answer 10

• 20 children ASD, 14 children with down syndrome and 27 normal children did false belief task
• Significant impairment seen in ASD children compared to controls

Question 11

Lind (2010) review of papers looking into autobiographic memory impairments in ASD?

Answer 11

• impaired autobiographical semantic knowledge
• decreased self-reference effect (therefore difficulty encoding self knowledge)
• ASD decreases episodic autobiographical memory and episodic/future thinking
• decreased self-awareness also due to memory binding
• ULTIMATELY CAUSES DIMINISHED TEMPORALLY EXTENDED PSYCHOLOGICAL SELF

Question 12

Impaired TOM and ASD - what is not explained by this?

Answer 12

• Specific language problems
• ## High functioning, specific advanced abilities

Question 13

Impaired TOM and ASD - what explained/accounted for by this?

Answer 13

• Lack of social understanding / responsiveness to social cues
• Lacking empathy
• Social impairments
• Difficulties in communications

Question 14

ASD and the adult social brain - study relating to Empathy?

Answer 14

De Murie, De Covel and Roeyers (2011)
Adult individuals with ASD tested compared to control group in attempts to infer the thoughts and feelings of another
A group of ASD adolescents Significantly worse at ‘reading the mind through the eyes’

Question 15

ASD and the adult social brain - study relating to fMRI brain scans
Baron-Cohen, 1999?

Answer 15

• -> Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) confirmed prediction that the STG (superior temporal gyrus) and amygdala show increased activation when using social intelligence.
• -> Some areas of the prefrontal cortex also showed activation.
• -> In contrast, patients with autism or AS activated the fronto-temporal regions but not the amygdala when making mental inferences from the eyes