Social Cognition Flashcards
(16 cards)
Perspective Taking
Dumontheil et al 2010: Director’s Task, taking on someone else’s perspective costs time and accuracy.
Errors reduce with age- we get better as we get older.
Switching between egocentric and others perspective is very important for socialising. Accuracy improved for child and A in both tasks, however in control A and adults no difference, but in experimental trial A made more errors.
Dumontheil et al 2010 (NI)
Female only sample: When the Director Task is done in a scanner the LPFC and TPJ are key areas implicated.
LPFC are involved in inhibiting responses
TPJ: important for switching representations
In both areas in A there is less responsiveness, and there are differentiating less compared to during adulthood. Fits with idea that PFC and TPJ continue to develop structurally and functionally throughout A.
Theory of Mind
The ability to attribute mental states or beliefs to others
Sebastian et al 2012
Cartoons are used to see if they can imagine the cognitive or emotional act of an other. When trying to ascertain emotional state of another the mPFC and STS are implicated- dissociation between activity in mPFC for A compared to adults, could be linked to synoptogenesis and synaptic pruning not having fully occurred.
Burnett et al 2009
Doesn’t have to show visual stimuli- can ask emotional evocation from a sentence, such as social emotions like embarrassment or guilt compared to fear and disgust. Stronger and more diffuse engagement in TPJ and mPFC is also more responsive- big difference in early A decreasing over time.
Goddings et al 2012
Linking to theory of mind, age isn’t always the best indicator- positive correlation between bioavailable testosterone and estradiol and engagement of temporal pole when linked to social emotions linked to puberty.
Empathy
Michalska et al 2013: Anterior insula cortex and anterior singulate cortex are activated when we think of empathy for others, same areas as when we feel pain for ourselves- mirror neurons. In early A this response is reduced could be unspecialised.
Emotion Regulation
McRae et al 2012/13: We are very good at regulating our emotions and we get better at this will age. Negative stimuli can be reappraised by putting it in a more positive light-reduces response in inferior frontal gyrus. We get better at emotional down-regulation with age.
Peer Influence (Ostracism)
Sebastian et al 2010: Inclusion and exclusion ball throwing/catching task, easy to measure mood before and after. In early A we are more sensitive to peer inclusion, tf mood decreases in young and mid A after ostracism but not so much later on.
Peer Influence (Ostracism and Brain)
Gunther-Moor 2011: Brain responses during ostracism in mPFC are particularly sensitive, demonstrated in the cyber ball game.
Resistance to Peer Influence Steinburg and Monhan 2007
Steinburg and Monhan 2007: Previous research had found inverted U pattern to peer resistance but only used anti social behaviours. Resistance to peer influence increases throughout A linearly , designed the peer resistance scale, using self report Q.
Very important at the start of school, less so at the end.
Resistance to Peer Influence Albert 2013
Albert 2013: Exp designed by Steinburg- stop light task. A crash more often (take more risks) when the think their friends are watching. No difference in adults. Widely replicated.
Peer Influence Gosbras et al 2007
Gosbras et al 2007: There is still variability within each age group. Angry and Neutral hand actions picking up wine glasses. When Angry they found MN fire, SPECULATE more mature MN, more peer resistance, the more social emotional responses given
Peer Influence Paus et al 2010
Paus et al 2010: Those which work together mature together, greater correlation may mean similar maturation. WM integrity may be a precursor to better neural circuitry.
With low peer resistance less correlate with GM integrity of the system- high resistance, more integrated function and more developed to brain structure.
Resistance to Peer Influence Albert 2013
Neural findings
Ventral Striatum (reward systems) shows greater response compared to adults. VS response is negatively correlated to peer resistance- neurophysiological mechanisms- behaviours are more rewarding when exposed to peers.
Shaw et al 2018
There are 2 distinct personality profiles that lead to differences in their ability to emotion regulate and with representational perspectives. There is also a hierarchical structure within the many domain of social cognition, with certain facets of social cognition mediating others. Social cognition isn’t something that occurs as distinct entities therefore should be studied using a more holistic view to really understand how it works.
