socio-cognitive development I Flashcards
(22 cards)
What is Theory of Mind (ToM)?
The capacity to attribute mental states (e.g., desires, beliefs, knowledge) to others to predict or explain behaviour.
What is visuo-spatial perspective taking?
The ability to understand how a situation or object looks from another person’s spatial viewpoint.
What is the “Unexpected transfer false-belief” task?
A task where a character puts an object in one location, leaves, and the object is moved. The child must predict where the character will look for it.
What is the “Unexpected contents false-belief” task?
A task where a child sees a typical container (e.g., a Smarties box) with unexpected contents and must predict what another person will think is inside.
What is the “Appearance-reality” task?
A task asking:
“What does this look like?”
“What is it really?”
— Used to test if children can distinguish appearance from reality.
What is the “Belief-based emotion task” (Hughes et al., 2000)?
A task measuring how beliefs influence emotions (e.g., feeling happy/sad based on what someone thinks, not what is real).
What is second-order false-belief?
The ability to understand what one person thinks another person believes (e.g., “Where does Simon think Mary will look?”).
What is faux pas understanding?
Recognizing when someone says something socially awkward or inappropriate without realizing it (Banerjee & Watling, 2005).
What is the Silent Films Task (Devine & Hughes, 2013)?
A ToM task asking children to infer the thoughts and intentions of characters in silent video clips.
What are examples of advanced ToM?
Second-order false-belief
Faux pas understanding
Sarcasm, irony, double entendres
Silent films / Strange Stories tasks
What is the general sequence of socio-cognitive development?
Visuo-spatial perspective taking
False-belief understanding
Appearance-reality distinction
Belief-based emotions
Advanced ToM (e.g., sarcasm, faux pas)
What are key problems with traditional ToM measures?
High language demands
Often use single items
Not reflective of real-world ToM use
Implicit vs explicit differences
Memory burden
What is the Theory-Theory (Gopnik & Wellman, 1992)?
The idea that children form and revise “theories” about how minds work, like little scientists.
What is a critique of Theory-Theory?
It’s too academic and assumes testable theories form naturally—something hard to verify.
What is Simulation Theory (Harris, 1991)?
Children use imagination and analogy (“like me”) to simulate and understand others’ minds.
What is a critique of Simulation Theory?
Imagination may result from development, not cause it—plus it’s hard to test.
What is Modularity Theory (Leslie, 1999)?
Suggests ToM is driven by a dedicated, innate neural mechanism (ToMM) that matures over time.
What are critiques of Modularity Theory?
It neglects environmental influences and oversimplifies ToM as purely biological
What are mirror neurons?
Brain cells that fire both when performing an action and when observing someone else do the same.
What do mirror neurons suggest about ToM?
They might help us simulate others’ emotions and actions (Gallese et al., 2004).
What is a critique of mirror neuron theory?
They aid in action prediction but don’t explain complex social cognition (Carpendale et al., 2018).
What role does neuroimaging play in ToM research?
It helps identify brain regions associated with mental state reasoning and perspective taking.
