Lecture 9A: Child Social Cognition Flashcards
What is social cognition?
A subfield of psychology that examines how people process, store, and apply information about people and social situations
What is socio-cognitive development?
This is the study how infants and children reason about people’s beliefs, thoughts, goals, and intentions, including their own, and how it influences their behaviour.
Revise the chart about socio-cognitive development
What is Theory of Mind?
The ability to attribute mental states such as knowledge, beliefs, and desires to oneself and others, and to understand that other people can have knowledge, beliefs, and desires that differ
from one’s own.
When does theory of mind develop?
Begins to develop between 3 and 4 years of age, and is nearly fully developed at around 6 years of age.
What is false belief?
The ability to understand that other people can hold beliefs that differ from reality is termed false belief
What was Wimmer and Perner false-belief task?
Wimmer and Perner presented children between 3 and 9 years of age with sketches in which a character named Maxi placed his chocolate into
a cupboard, and his mother then moved it to a different cupboard while Maxi was out of the room.
When asked where Maxi would look for his chocolate when he re-entered the room, children younger than 4–5 years of age incorrectly stated that Maxi would look for his chocolate at its new location, whereas children older than 4–5 years of age understood that Maxi would look in the original location.
How do children develop a theory of mind
At 3 year-olds children start to understand that different people may want, like and feel different things.
How do psychologists test theory of mind?
Developmental psychologists have numerous ways to test ToM such as false-belief tasks, such as the Sally-Anne Task and the Smarties Task.
What is the sally-anne task?
The Sally–Anne test is a psychological test originally by Daniel Dennett, used in developmental psychology to measure a person’s social cognitive ability to attribute false beliefs to others.
The process: Sally puts her marble in her basket and leaves the room. While Sally is away, Anne moves the marble from the basket to the box. Sally returns to the room and the test participant is asked “Where will Sally look for her marble?” this is the belief question.
What is the smarties task?
A child is shown a closed box of Smarties, the box is rattled to generate interest, and the child is asked what they think is in the box. Children typically answer with the obvious, Smarties. Each is shown that the box in fact contained pencils.
How does lying and theory of mind connect?
Lying behaviour in children improves with theory of mind development.
What was the study about lying by (Talwar & Lee, 2002)?
An examiner tempted 3- to 8-year-olds to commit a minor transgression peeking at a toy, after being told not to peek. The examiner then assessed whether children would lie or admit to peeking.
What did (Talwar & Lee, 2002) conclude?
Younger children tended to confess their transgression, but most older children lied. Some were better at lying to conceal their transgression and sticking to their lie than others.
**Children who performed well on false-belief tasks were better liars and sustained liars.
Why is white lie-telling in children important?
Prosocial types of lying behaviour, such as white lie-telling, is important in the development of politeness norms and a part of healthy social development.
What was the study done by (Koenig, Clément, & Harris, 2004) on reliability?
An examiner asked 3- and 4-year-old children to watch two unfamiliar adults name four familiar objects.
One adult named the four objects correctly, for example by saying, “That’s a cup” to a cup. The other adult named the four objects incorrectly, for example by labeling the cup a ball.
Children judged one adult as more reliable or accurate than the other, and later preferred to ask for information from the adult they viewed to be more trustworthy
What was (Kushnir et al., 2013) study about expertise?
Young children selectively request information or help from people who are knowledgeable in the relevant areas.
Children 3 and 4 years of age were more likely to ask the person they saw fix an object in the past (but who did not know the names of objects: the “fixer”) to fix a toy that was broken.
In contrast, children were more likely to ask a person who knew the names of objects (but could not fix objects: the “labeler”) the label for an object. With age, children improved in their ability to direct requests to the individual with the relevant skills.
What is selective social learning?
While children are naive, they are selective in who they choose to learn from. This is called selective social
learning.
How do 3 year olds evaluate peoples knowledge and expertise?
Through Non-Epistemic cues/Traits
- Testimony
- Personality
- Group Membership
- Appearance
- Familiarity
How do 4-5 year olds evaluate peoples knowledge and expertise?
Through Epistemic cues/Traits
- Expertise
- Reliability/Accuracy
- Consensus
Which cues start to become more important?
With age, epistemic cues (e.g., expertise, history of reliability) become more important than non-epistemic cues (e.g.,
familiarity, likeability).
- This developmental shift happens at around 4 years of age.
Are our perceptions of gender stereotypes changing, and is that affecting how children see their own abilities?
YES! because common stereotypes to associate high-level intellectual
ability/brilliance with men..
This could discourage women’s pursuit of many prestigious careers
* Example: Mathematics, physics, philosophy
* Gendered notions of brilliance are acquired early
What was the Ability Versus Interest study by (Bian et al)
This study included children ages 5-7 from a middle-class backgrounds, 75% white sample, They assessed children’s endorsement of the “brilliance = males” stereotype with different tasks
Children were told a brief story about a person who was “really, really
smart.” Children were asked to guess which of four unfamiliar adults
(2 men, 2 women) was the protagonist of the story.
What did the ability versus interest study conclude?
These stereotypes are endorsed by, and influence the interests of, children as young as 6. Specifically, 6-year-old girls are less likely than boys to believe that members of their gender are “really, really smart.”
Also at age 6, girls begin to avoid activities said to be for children who are “really, really smart.”
These findings suggest that gendered notions of brilliance are acquired early and have an immediate effect on children’s interests.
