Cognition + development

Question 1

Who is Piaget?

Answer 1

A developmetal psychologist who studied how children develop psychologically as they mature.

Question 2

What are schemas?

Answer 2

• A way of organising knowledge
• We are constantly using our schemas to make sense of the world
• Some schemas are innate; our schemas change and grow in complexity with experience

Question 3

What is disequilibrium?

Answer 3

A state of unbalance if we cannot understand something using our existing schema.

Question 4

What is equilibrium?

Answer 4

A state of balance which we achieve by discovering and acquiring the new information we need to make sense of our experiences. This may involve forming a new schema or incorporating information into an existing schema.

Question 5

What is equilibration?

Answer 5

The process of achieving equilibrium again.

Question 6

What is assimilation?

Answer 6

When information is taken in and incorporated into an existing schema, without much change being required.

Question 7

What is accommodation?

Answer 7

When some sort of change is needed - either a whole new schema is required or radical change of an existing schema is required.

Question 8

Explain the research support of Piaget’s theory that some schemas are innate.

Answer 8

• Babies as young as four days old preferred looking at features arranged as a face than the same features jumbled up.
• This finding has been replicated many times
• As the babies are so young they could not have learnt to recognise faces but rather must have a pre-existing schema for them
• This is adaptive because it means the infant will be able to interact with caregiver from birth and be able to bond

Question 9

Explain the strength that Piaget’s theory has research support (Howe) showing that schemas are individual and vary between people.

Answer 9

After the discussion about moving objects down a slope, the children had not come to the same conclusion or picked up the same facts.
This supports Piaget’s idea that children learn by forming their own personal mental representations.

Question 10

How is application to education a strength of Piaget’s theory?

Answer 10

• Piaget’s theory that children construct their own schemas in response to what they discover about the world led to schools placing an emphasis on discovery learning, with practical activities so that children could find out about how things work and how they relate to each other
• However, applying Piaget’s work to educating older children is unhelpful because our education system and testing is standardised. Our schemas are personal and differ between children, if learning through discovery they will learn different things, just as Howe found.

Question 11

How can Piaget’s theory be linked to debates?

Answer 11

Nature vs nurture
Nature:
- Biologically primed to learn
- Evolutionary explanation - some schemas are innate + aid our survival
- (Biological determinism)
Nurture:
- Our schemas develop in response to the environment
- Different experiences result in different schemas + our perceptions + way we interact with the world will differ as a result
- (Environmental determinism)

Question 12

What are Piaget’s four stages of learning?

Answer 12

• Sensorimotor stage (0-2 years)
• Pre-operational stage (2-7 years)
• Concrete operational stage (7-11 years)
• Formal operational stage (11+ years)

Question 13

What is the sensorimotor stage?

Answer 13

• As children move through this stage, they become more masterful of and intentional with their movements
• From around 8 months of age and completing by 18-24 months, object permanence develops

Question 14

What is object permanence?

Answer 14

Understanding that thing exist when they are outside direct observation by the individual; that objects and people exist as separate permanent things.

Question 15

How did Piaget test object permanence?

Answer 15

He hid an object under a blanket.
Before 8 months - ‘out of sight, out of mind’
From 8 months, the infant would continue to look for the object.

Incomplete object permanence was tested by the A-not-B error test: babies are shown an object and see it repeatedly hidden under cloth A. They look for it under cloth A. Then when it is hidden under cloth B the child continues to look under A. Past 1 year of age, babies do not tend to make this error.

Question 16

What is the pre-operational stage?

Answer 16

• Child can use language but lacks reasoning ability
• Children are yet to understand conservation
• Children are egocentric
• Children are yet to understand class inclusion

Question 17

What is conservation?

Answer 17

The idea that the essential properties of a thing are kept (conserved) even though some aspect of the thing may change.

Question 18

What were the three key areas of deficit in reasoning that Piaget identified and tested?

Answer 18

• Number
• Mass
• Volume

(In all tasks, pre-operational children were likely to say that they were different in answer to the second question.)

Question 19

How did Piaget test that children could not conserve number?

Answer 19

• Adult sets up two identical rows of coins; ask “are there the same number of coins or different/one has more?”
• Adult spreads out one row; asks “are there the same number of coins or different/one has more?”

Question 20

How did Piaget test that children could not conserve mass?

Answer 20

• Adult sets up two identical columns of play doh; asks “are they the same amount or different/one has more?”
• Adult squashes one column; asks “are they the same amount or different/one has more?”

Question 21

How did Piaget test that children could not conserve volume?

Answer 21

• Adult sets up two identical containers of liquid; asks “are they the same amount of liquid or different/one has more?”
• Adult pours one container into another of different shape; asks “are they the same amount of liquid or different/one has more?”

Question 22

What is egocentrism?

Answer 22

Only being able to see the world from your own point of view: physical perspective or an argument or opinion.
De-centering is being able to see it from another’s point of view.

Question 23

How was egocentrism tested for 2-7 year olds?

Answer 23

Piaget used the 3 mountains task to test whether children could de-centre their view of the world.
Four picture cards, child to select card illustrating their view of the 3 mountains board, dolly sat with a different view and the child had to select the card showing the dolly’s view. Pre-operating children gave their own view.

Question 24

What is class inclusion?

Answer 24

Understanding that things can be put into classes or categories.
Very young children understand that things can be placed in categories and are able to do this.
However, they do not show an understanding that categories can have subsets.

Question 25

How did Piaget test class inclusion?

Answer 25

Piaget showed that children aged 2-7 were able to put a pug, Labrador and German shepherd into a ‘dog’ category but could not accurately answer the question “are there more dogs or animals?”, when shown a display of cats and dogs together.

Question 26

What is the concrete operational stage?

Answer 26

• Children now have much better reasoning abilities
• The child can conserve, de-centre and understand class inclusion
• The child can reason about things that are concrete - that means real objects in their physical presence
• However, they are still not able to think in an abstract way

Question 27

How was concrete but not abstract thinking tested?

Answer 27

• Local thinking puzzles - if all yellow cats have two heads and I have a yellow cat, how many heads does my cat have?
• Children in the concrete operations stage get distracted by the fact that their experience tells them cats do not have two heads so are unable to separate the content from the form

Question 28

What is the formal operational stage?

Answer 28

Children become able to focus on the form of an argument and not be distracted by its content. This allows for scientific reasoning, logical argument, and an appreciation of abstract ideas.

Question 29

How is supporting evidence for the biological basis for Piaget’s theory a strength?

Answer 29

There is a large body of supporting evidence for the theory of biologically driven stages in cognitive development.
However some evidence shows that children go through the stages at vastly different ages to others.
Piaget suggest that the stages should be taken as rough estimates of the times when children go through the changes, and not a fixed schedule. There will be differences.
This strengthens the validity.

Question 30

How is the fact that Piaget’s theory has useful applications a strength?

Answer 30

One long-lasting key idea is that the difference between the way children and adults think is qualitative.
For real learning to take place, a child must be at the appropriate stage in development.
Teaching a pre-operational child complex mathematical formulae will not be successful.
This has informed primary school teaching. In 1967 in the UK, a hugely influential report on primary teaching was published. It was based largely on Piaget’s work.
This means his theory is useful.

Question 31

Why is the fact that Piaget’s methodology was flawed a weakness?

Answer 31

For the conservation task, children may have thought the correct answer was ‘yes’ because the adult changed something. The child might have been responding to social desirability bias or demand characteristics. This effects validity.

Naughty teddy conservation research showed that when the teddy messed up the rows of coins so one looked longer, more children were able to correctly answer that the number was still the same.
This criticises his theory but suggests he was right that some pre-operational children cannot conserve, but overall he underestimated the abilities of the age group.

Egocentrism task: Children were asked to do a more real life example - asked them to place a naughty boy doll in a model with 3D walls so that policemen who were looking for him would not be able to see him.
90% of 3 and a half year olds were able to do this successfully, showing that they were able to see the situation from the perspective of the policemen.

Question 32

Why is the fact that development may not be a single process be a limitation of Piaget’s theory?

Answer 32

Many people with autism spectrum disorder develop ‘normally’ in terms of reasoning but can remain very egocentric. This suggests that is it not all one process as Piaget claimed. This effects the validity of his theory.

Question 33

What is the difference between Vygotsky’s theory and Piaget’s theory?

Answer 33

Piaget believed that children drive their own learning while Vygotsky believed that learning is facilitated by social interaction.
Vygotsky saw the child as an apprentice to a more knowledgeable other; Piaget saw the child as a scientist, discovering things for themselves.

Question 34

What is scaffolding?

Answer 34

A supportive framework to aid learning.
A more knowledgable other - the expert provides a supportive framework of instruction and guidance.
This support is gradually withdrawn.

Question 35

What features may scaffolding use?

Answer 35

• Play: to maintain interest and participation
• Demonstration: to show the child clearly what to do
• Talking: by the expert talking, the child is encouraged to do more of the process alone - verbal support/prompt/encouragement

Question 36

What is the goal of scaffolding?

Answer 36

Independence
Eventually the child will be able to do this alone without any support.
With each step, if the child is successful, support is reduced, if the child fails, the support is strengthened.

Question 37

What is the zone of proximal development?

Answer 37

The area between what a child can do unaided and what the child can learn to do with help - the difference between actual current ability and potentially ability.

Question 38

How can scaffolding help the learner move through the zone of proximal development?

Answer 38

Scaffolding extends the child’s abilities and allows the child to travel faster and further from their current ability level. Eg. demonstration from an expert.

Question 39

What is the special role of language?

Answer 39

Through social interaction the child develops the tool of language.
Language enables a shift from elementary mental functions to higher mental functions:

external language of expert > inner speech > internalised thought

Question 40

What are the similarities of Piaget and Vygotsky?

Answer 40

• Both children are seen as active learners
  Piaget: child drives their own learning
  Vygotsky: child interacts with experts
• Both children learn increasingly complex skills as they get older
  Piaget: children master concepts such as conservation as they progress through stages
  Vygotsky: children are continually learning while moving through ZPD
• Both emphasis nature and nurture (cognitive theories)
  Biological drive to learn, what we learn and how fast depends on our experiences in the environment

Question 41

What are the differences between Piaget and Vygotsky?

Answer 41

• Piaget: readiness (must be at right stage) / Vygotsky: acceleration (scaffolding by expert helps child move more quickly through ZPD)
• Piaget: stages / Vygotsky: continual (movement through ZPD)
• Piaget: child as scientist (‘constructivist’, child builds own understanding) / Vygotsky: child as apprentice (learning from expert, ‘social interactionist’)

Question 42

How does support for the idea of scaffolding count as a strength of Vygotsky’s theory?

Answer 42

Vygotsky’s theory states that an expert provides scaffolding to enable the learner to move through the ZPD and then reduces the support gradually.
Support is reduced because the goal is independence.

Evidence: Conner and Cross illustrated the gradual reduction of support from the expert in a longitudinal study of 45 children.
The children were studied at 16, 26, 44 and 54 months. Over time less direct intervention and more prompts were used and help was offered when needed rather than constantly. This supports Vygotsky’s theory that scaffolding is reduced by the expert as the learner becomes more independently able to do the task.

Question 43

What support is there to support the Zone of Proximal Development?

Answer 43

Roazzi and Bryant gave children aged 4-5 some sweets in box and asked them to estimate how many there were.
In condition 1 the children worked alone and in condition 2 they worked with an expert older child.
Most children working alone failed to give a good estimate. In condition 2, the expert was shown to prompt the child, pointing them in the right direction. Most of the children in condition 2 mastered the task.
This supports Vygotsky’s theory because children in condition 1 could not do the task, it is not something they can do unaided. However, with support children in condition 2 could do the task, showing there is a gap and the expert helped them cross it.

Question 44

Why is application in education a strength of Vygotsky’s theory?

Answer 44

Scaffolding is formalised in lessons and resources.
A review of usefulness of teaching assistants found that they are very effective at improving the learning rate of children providing they are trained.
This supports Vygotsky’s theory because is shows that the learner benefits from interaction with an expert, which the trained TAs would be.

Question 45

Why is the fact that individual differences are ignored a limitation of Vygotsky’s theory?

Answer 45

Some children may not learn best through social interaction so the theory will not fit all children.
(Some introverts or people on the autism spectrum may not learn well this way)
It means the theory can’t explain learning for everyone, it can’t be fully generalised.

Question 46

How is determinism/free will debate linked to this theory?

Answer 46

Determinism
Factors determining behaviour:
- learning - prescence of an expert
- scaffolding
- helps learner move faster through ZPD
- biological drive to learn

Question 47

Who is Baillargeon?

Answer 47

She challenged Piaget’s ideas about babies’ abilities in the sensorimotor stage, including object permanence.
She has tested babies understanding of object permanence and occlusion (blocking) over many years, using violation of expectation trials.

Question 48

What is violation of expectation research?

Answer 48

Involves showing babies something that they do not expect to see happen, something which is impossible if you understand physical laws.
They measure whether the baby is surprised by how long they look at ‘gaze’ the scene that is manipulated for them.

Question 49

What happened in Baillargeon’s violation of expectation research?

Answer 49

24 infants (5-6 months old) were shown possible and impossible events.
The possible showed a small rabbit become not visible behind a wall and the impossible showed a tall rabbit go behind a wall but not become visible through a window, even though that was expected.
Possible event: babies looked for an average of 25.11 seconds at the possible event.
Impossible event: babies looked for an average of 33.07 seconds at the impossible event.

Question 50

What study was Baillargeon’s research known as?

Answer 50

An occlusion study which tests an understanding that one object will block another, as well as object permanence.

Question 51

How did Baillargeon explain these abilities in young infants?

Answer 51

Due to an innate physical reasoning system where infants can quickly learn about occlusion that objects can block each other and they are predisposed to attend to new events that allow them to develop their understanding of the physical world.

Question 52

Why does Baillargeon’s research give us a better understanding of infant capabilities than Piaget’s?

Answer 52

Piaget has been criticised because perhaps in his studies, babies looked away because they just lost interest rather than because they thought the object had ceased to exist.
Baillargeon’s does not face the same criticism because she used two conditions.
If babies just lose interest, they should lose interest equally whatever they’re looking at.
However, she found they kept looking for longer at ‘impossible’ events, showing surprise.

Question 53

How does Baillargeon’s study have high control?

Answer 53

Babies were sat on their parent’s lap for the studies, but any influence from the parent was controlled by the parent closing their eyes and not interacting with their infant during the trials.
This prevents demand characteristics being picked up from the parent.
Therefore this improves internal validity.

They also used a double blind procedure, both participant and researcher are unaware of the aim and/or which condition the participant is in.

Question 54

What is social cognition?

Answer 54

The cognitive processes involved in social interaction.
The understanding we develop about other people and the decisions we make about our interactions are both cognitive processes.

Question 55

What are the 3 areas of social cognition?

Answer 55

• Perspective taking
• Theory of mind
• Mirror neurons

Question 56

What are Selman’s levels of perspective taking?

Answer 56

The ability to see a social situation from another’s perspective.
He believed this was a social development (nurture) not just a biologically-driven cognitive one.
Much of our social functioning relies on this ability.

Question 57

How did Selman propose that the ability to take other’s perspective develops?

Answer 57

He proposed that the ability to take other’s perspectives develops through 5 levels.
The levels show an age-related shift from egocentric view to a broader cultural/moral understanding of other people’s points of view.

Question 58

How did Selman research perspective-taking?

Answer 58

Used a sample of 225 participants aged 4.5 to 32 years of age.
Level of perspective-taking correlated with age.
This was a cross-sectional study (snapshot).

Question 59

What are the 5 levels of perspective taking?

Answer 59

• Egocentric
• Social-informational
• Self-reflective
• Mutual
• Societal

Question 60

What are the characteristics of the egocentric level of perspective taking?

Answer 60

• 3-6 years

- Children may recognise that the self and others can have different points of view, but frequently confuse the two

Question 61

What are the characteristics of the social-informational level of perspective taking?

Answer 61

• 6-8 years
• Children understand that different perspectives may result because people have access to different information
• Will not understand differences in opinion if information is the same, so not truly able to imagine a different point of view

Question 62

What are the characteristics of the self-reflective level of perspective taking?

Answer 62

• 8-10 years
• Child can now view things from someone else’s perspective in addition to their own and understands others are able to do this too
• But they will only be able to consider one point of view at a time

Question 63

What are the characteristics of the mutual level of perspective taking?

Answer 63

• 10-12 years

- Child can consider two people’s points of view at the same time

Question 64

What are the characteristics of the societal level of perspective taking?

Answer 64

• 12+ years
• Individuals understand that decisions are now made with reference to social conventions as understanding another’s point of view may not be enough to ensure agreement

Question 65

How did Selman test children’s perspective-taking?

Answer 65

Selman used dilemmas based on scenarios to test children’s perspective-taking.
A dilemma is a problem offering two possibilities, neither of which is unambiguously preferable.
One of the scenarios he used is the Holly Dilemma.
From this research he identified 5 distinct levels of perspective-taking.
He found that these correlate with age; higher levels enable better social functioning.

Question 66

What is the Holly Dilemma?

Answer 66

Holly loves to climb trees
One day she falls but does not hurt herself
Her father is upset and asks her to promise never to climb another tree
Holly promises
Later, her friend’s kitten is caught up in a tree
Something needs to be done right away or the kitten may fall
Holly is the only one who can climb trees well enough
She remembers her promise to her father

Will her father understand why she climbed the tree?
Should she be punished?

Question 67

How did egocentric children answer the Holly Dilemma?

Answer 67

“He will understand because he loves kittens too, he’ll be happy”.
If the child loves kittens, they think everyone will love kittens.

Question 68

How did social-informational children answer the Holly Dilemma?

Answer 68

“If Holly showed him the kitten he might change his mind”.

Will not understand differences in opinion when information is the same.

Question 69

How did self-reflective children answer the Holly Dilemma?

Answer 69

“He will understand because he can put himself in her shoes and understand how she feels so won’t punish her”.
Can understand Holly’s perspective, but not more than one, and so they don’t understand the father can have a different view to Holly.

Question 70

How did mutual children answer the Holly Dilemma?

Answer 70

“He may feel differently to Holly, because she knows by climbing she is putting herself in danger and he is worried about her. He will think she shouldn’t have broken her promise but maybe should have gone for help. Holly will still think she has done the right thing”.
The child can now see both Holly’s and her father’s perspective.

Question 71

How did societal people answer the Holly Dilemma?

Answer 71

“Her father will think that the right thing to do is to save the animal’s life because all lives, even animal ones, have value. He therefore won’t punish her”.
Understanding another’s point of view may not be enough to ensure agreement.

Question 72

What did Selman believe perspective-taking was vitally important for?

Answer 72

Vitally important for all social behaviour, particularly pro-social behaviour.
Children with poor perspective-taking skills had more difficulty with relationships and were less popular.
Positive correlation: between perspective-taking skills and pro-social behaviour
Negative correlation: between perspective-taking skills and aggression

Question 73

What support is there for the progressive nature of Selman’s levels?

Answer 73

2 years after Selman’s original study 48 boys were re-interviewed: 40 had made gains in their level of perspective-taking; none had regressed.
3 years after that 41 boys were re-interviewed: most had made gains in their level of perspective-taking; none had regressed or skipped a stage.
These findings support Selman’s theory that children pass through a series of levels of perspective-taking as they mature.

Question 74

What support is there for experience being an essential part of the process?

Answer 74

Study looked at the development of perspective-taking skills in relation to parental style.
Children whose parents encouraged them to take the perspective of the victim, showed higher levels of perspective-taking.
If it was just a biological process, parental style wouldn’t speed it up. Parents who encouraged perspective-taking had children who had accelerated their own perspective-taking, suggesting this parenting allowed this to happen.

Question 75

What more evidence is there that shows perspective-taking skills is not just a biological process?

Answer 75

Study compared Chinese adults with American adults and the Chinese adults did significantly better than their matched American partners in perspective-taking exercises.
This shows it is not just a biological process because the Chinese and American young people are biologically extremely similar, but their cultures are very different.
In particular, Chinese culture is collectivist and emphases other people, whereas the US is individualist and emphases the self over others.

Question 76

Why is application a strength of perspective-taking research?

Answer 76

If perspective-taking can be developed by experienced then there are applications for schools and prisons.
Social skills training programmes are used in therapeutic and prison settings to help develop perspective-taking and improve people’s social skills and ultimately their quality of life.
Prisoners could meet with victim’s families “restorative justice” to understand how they were affected and seeing their perspective of the crime.

Question 77

Why may Selman’s theory be incomplete?

Answer 77

Not all research shows that having perspective-taking skills is associated with pro-social behaviour; research in 2009 with bullies found that they showed no impairments in their perspective-taking.
This suggests that Selman may not be right all the time, or their may be unknown non-cognitive factors involved in determining pro-social behaviour such as empathy and emotion which he ignored.

Question 78

Why is the fact that Selman’s research has low temporal validity a limitation?

Answer 78

The explanation does not take account of children’s complex social worlds in modern society eg. family, nursery, step-families, cultural differences which are very different from when he did his studies 50 years ago.
Social role-taking may be different now because children have much more complex social interactions from a young age.
Therefore modern children may progress more quickly through the levels.

Question 79

What is theory of mind?

Answer 79

The recognition that another person has different thoughts and feelings.
The ability to attribute mental states - beliefs, intents, desires, emotions, knowledge, to oneself and to others and to understand that others have them that are different from oneself.

Question 80

What is lack of theory of mind?

Answer 80

Also called ‘mind blindness’
The inability to read others’ minds
Put forward as an explanation for autism spectrum disorder
Lack of theory of mind is theorised to be due to a failure of an innate, biological Theory of Mind Mechanism (ToMM)

Question 81

What tests can be used to show when a child lacks theory of mind?

Answer 81

• False belief tests eg. Sally-Anne test
• Sees if a child can understand that someone can hold a belief which you know to be false
• See if they understand that they have a separate mind with its own beliefs which can be different to your own

Question 82

How did Baron-Cohen develop a ‘false belief’ test?

Answer 82

• Baron-Cohen developed this test to research lack of theory of mind in children with autism
• 3 groups of participants: children with autism, children with Down’s syndrome with lower IQs than the other groups, and ‘normal’ children

Question 83

Why was there a group of children with Down’s syndrome?

Answer 83

To show that it wasn’t testing IQ.

Also to control for having any diagnosis in childhood.

Question 84

What happens in the Sally-Anne test?

Answer 84

Sally puts her ball in a basket and leaves
Anne moves the ball into a box
Sally comes back
Children are asked: where will Sally look for her ball?

Question 85

Children watched Anne move the ball and were then asked ‘where is the ball?’ - why were they asked this question?

Answer 85

To show that they understood where it had been and where it ended up. Prevents a wild guess.

Question 86

What were the findings of the Sally-Anne test?

Answer 86

85% of the ‘normal’ and Down’s groups correctly answered the question as basket.
Only 20% of the children with autism answered correctly.

Question 87

What do the results of the Sally-Anne test show?

Answer 87

• Theory of mind is impaired in most children with autism (80%)
• Children with Down’s syndrome scored the same as the ‘normal’ group, meaning it was not because of IQ
• This is not a universal impairment in autism (20% passed and have a working theory of mind)
• Also, 15% of ‘normal’ group had impaired theory of mind

Question 88

What test is used for adults to test theory of mind?

Answer 88

• The Eyes Task
• Adults with autism could often pass the Sally-Anne test; they used reasoning and experience to work out the correct answer
• The Eyes Task tests whether adults with autism could ‘read’ the mental state of other people from their eyes; that is whether they showed an understanding that the appearance of the eyes would be different depending on the person’s state of mind

Question 89

What were the findings of the Eyes Task?

Answer 89

Autism group:
- Mean score: 16.3
- Range: 13-23
'Normal' group:
- Mean score: 20.3
- Range: 16-25

Question 90

What do the findings of the Eyes Task tell us about autism and ToM?

Answer 90

• Autism does less well on the task suggesting impaired theory of mind
• At least one person with autism scored higher than the mean for the normal group which shows theory of mind cannot be a full explanation for autism

Question 91

What are the strengths of Theory of Mind?

Answer 91

• There is lots of evidence to support ToM as an explanation for autism (Sally-Anne, Eyes Task)
• There is neuroscientific evidence to support the idea of ToMM (evidence from brain scanning research suggests areas of brain are activated when ToM tasks are being performed, shows theory is innate)
• ToM has applications to real life - led to interventions to improve the functioning of people with autism eg. TV show The Transporters (helps children with autism to learn what emotions are associated with certain facial expressions)

Question 92

What are the limitations of Theory of Mind as an explanation for autism?

Answer 92

• Findings of Eyes Task show that ToM is an incomplete explanation for autism: it is not a universal lack of theory of mind, some were able to score highly
• Eyes Task lacks ecological validity - in real life, you get to see a person’s whole face, their body language, their tone of voice, you get a wider range of emotions of choice and you get longer than 3 seconds to look

Question 93

What are mirror neurons?

Answer 93

Neurons in various parts of the brain that activate when a person/monkey performs an action and also when another individual performs the same action.
This means an observer’s brain experiences the actions of another as if it were their own.

Question 94

What happened in Rizzolatti’s research on mirror neurons?

Answer 94

• They discovered that when a monkey saw a person or another monkey performing an action, some of the same neurons activated in the motor areas of the monkey’s brain as when that monkey performed the task themselves
• The researchers tested what they had seen by getting the monkey’s to perform an action and noted which neurons fired
• When the monkey observed a person doing the same action, they saw that the same neurons fired
• This can explain how motor behaviour is learnt. We can learn skilled behaviour from observing others

Question 95

What do we encode?

Answer 95

Intention as well as action; why a person is doing what they are doing.
Our mirror neurons fire in response to seeing someone cry, laugh etc, and by experiencing the firing of these mirror neurons we also become aware of their intentions.
This understanding of intention through mirror neurons may be an essential part of development of a theory of mind and perspective-taking.

Question 96

What are the role of mirror neurons in social cognition?

Answer 96

Researchers believe that social cognition develops due to mirror neurons.
They say we can experience emotion as if we are the person we are observing. This is the beginning of empathy.

Question 97

What did VS Ramachandran believe?

Answer 97

He says that the development of mirror neurons has allowed us to excel in social relationships, and that this may be the evolutionary basis for our success as a species.
Imitation > intention > empathy

Question 98

What is human research on mirror neurons like?

Answer 98

Humans research into mirror neurons usually uses fMRI or EEG.
There are differences in the neuron activity of areas of the brain (not individual neurons) which can be measured.
Activity at rest is compared to activity when watching someone else perform a function or performing it yourself.
This has provided evidence that, like monkeys, we have mirror neurons.

Question 99

How is human research carried out for mirror neurons?

Answer 99

In human EEG research, mu desynchronisation is measured. Mu refers to a type of brain wave.
When the brain is at rest, neurons in the sensorimotor cortex fire in synchrony (creating mu waves).
When a person performs or observes an action, the firing of these cells becomes desynchronised.
This desynchronisation leads to reduced mu power, compared to when the cells were firing together.
Because this reduced power is seen both when an individual performs and when they observe an action, it has been taken as evidence of a human mirror neuron system.

Question 100

What is the broken mirror theory of autism?

Answer 100

Explains autism as due to faulty mirror neurons system - suggested by babies later diagnosed with autism mimic adults less than other babies do.
This difference in mirror neuron activity may explain later social communication difficulties in autism.

Question 101

What study shows autism linked to mirror neuron dysfunction?

Answer 101

Studied 10 EEG recordings of males with autism who were considered ‘high functioning’ and 10 gender-matched control subjects.
Individuals with autism showed a dysfunctional mirror neuron system: their mirror neurons responded only to what they did and not the doings of others.

Question 102

What is a limitation of the theory of the role of mirror neurons in social cognition?

Answer 102

There is still a lot we do not know about mirror neurons. There is very little direct research at the individual neuronal level in humans because EEG is not invasive.
Invasive research is unethical on humans. We don’t really know if it is the exact same neurons, could just be the same areas of the brain.
Basing a theory on animal studies is a limitation because our brains and biologies are not the same. Intentions may be different and we don’t know whether monkeys have empathy and think the same.

Question 103

Why is the fact that there is support from invasive human studies a strength of the role of mirror neurons in social cognition?

Answer 103

A study published in 2010 reported recordings from single neurons with mirror properties in the human brain.
Recordings were made from the brains of 21 patients who were being treated for intractable epilepsy. The patients had been implanted with intracranial depth electrodes to identify the focal point of seizures for potential surgical treatment.
Electrode location was based solely on clinical criteria; the researchers, with the patients’ consent, used the same electrodes. The researchers found a small number of neurons that fired or showed their greatest activity both when the individual performed a task and when they observed a task.

Question 104

Why is the fact that there is support for the idea that mirror neurons are involved in social cognition in humans a strength?

Answer 104

Many experiments using fMRI and EEG have shown that certain brain regions are active when people experience an emotion and when they see another person experiencing an emotion.
Researchers have shown that people who are more empathic according to self-report questionnaires have stronger activations both in the mirror system for hand actions and the mirror system for emotions, providing more direct support for the idea that the mirror system is linked to empathy.
However, fMRI and EEG only identify a general area of activity, we can’t be sure it’s exactly the same neurons firing. Self-report data may not be valid due to social desirability bias.

Question 105

Why is the fact that there is evidence that Ramachandran may be right in thinking we have evolved to have mirror neurons, and they are therefore innate, a strength?

Answer 105

Meltzoff and Moore found that babies as young as 3 days old imitate facial expressions.
This supports Ramachandran’s evolutionary theory because at 3 days of age, the babies were too young to have learnt this behaviour which suggests there is an innate, biological mirror neuron system.