Lecture 5.docx

Lecture 5 what's in a mind? mind is full of knowledge desires intentions understanding other people's intentions comes first in children when... emerges at 6 months understanding action intentions: study violation of expectation paradigm 6 month olds were habituated to a hand reaching for a...

Lecture 5 what's in a mind? mind is full of knowledge desires intentions understanding other people's intentions comes first in children when... emerges at 6 months understanding action intentions: study violation of expectation paradigm 6 month olds were habituated to a hand reaching for a ball that was beside a doll some infants are shown a hand reaching for the ball other infants shown a hand reaching for the doll which display do they look at longer? RESULTS: infants who saw the hand reach for the doll looked longer at the display of the hand reaching for the ball looked longer than the infants who saw the hand reach for the ball suggests that infants understand the INTENTIONS behind actions - and that reaching for the ball violates their expectations MORE IMPRESSIVE EVIDENCE: even when the position of the ball and the doll reversed, infants who saw the hand reach for the doll STILL LOOKED LONGER at the display than infants who saw the hand reach for ball shows that the infants understood that the go action was directed at a SPECIFIC OBJECT and NOT A SPECIFIC LOCATION understanding intentions vs accidents 9 month olds can distinguish between INTENTIONAL and ACCIDENTAL actions more frustrated when adult PURPOSELY doesn't give them a toy versus when an adult TRIES to give a toy, but ACCIDENTALLY drops it understanding minds of others/intentions enables ______ ___________ joint attention imitation joint attention the shared attention of 2 people on the same object or event AND awareness that they are paying attention to the same thing emerges between 9-12 months old difficulty with joint attention is an early indicator autism spectrum disorders when does joint attention emerge 9-12 months old examples of joint attention pointing, laughing in unison joint attention is critical for _______ from _______ learning from others TEACHING can only happen if children are paying attention to the same thing as their caregiver Imitation requires understanding intention voluntarily matching another person's behaviour emerges between 9-12 months old when does imitation emerge? 9-12 months innate basis of imitation? nativists argue that newborns' matching of STICKING TONGUE OUT is evidence that imitation is innate BUT newborns don't match any other behaviour, except for sticking tongue out sticking tongue out is a common newborn response to stimuli they find generally interesting/arousing suggests that newborns' matching of adult's sticking tongue out is COINCIDENTAL and simply an indication of interest so the "innate basis of imitation" is probably coincidental - they're likely simply interested in their caregiver so they stick out their tongue imitation and learning imitation is critical for OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING one of the most fundamental ways that children learn most things not passively imitating, but ACTIVELY INTERPRETING ACTIONS to figure out what to imitate kids don't imitate blindly - they observe others, process things cognitively and decide what makes sense to initiate to serve their own goals do infants imitate passively? no - they observe things, process the info and decide what makes sense to imitate to serve their own goals what kind of learning is imitation critical for? observational learning imitating intentional actions: study 12 month olds observed an adult TURN ON LIGHT WITH HER HEAD either had: hands occupied (forced to use head) hands free (freely chose to use head) what does the infant imitate? RESULTS if they'd seen the hands occupied version, they turned on their lights using hands if they saw the hands free version, they TURNED ON LIGHT USING HEAD shows that children IMITATE THE GOALS OF ACTIONS, not the actions themselves more generally, implies that children are actively thinking about what they are observing (not passive) what does the light (head, hands) study reveal? 1. that kids imitate the goals of actions as opposed to the actions themselves more generally, implies that children are actively thinking about what they're observing (not passive) short summary of understanding other's intentions 1. understanding others begins at 6 months with the ability to understand the INTENTIONS of others' actions understanding intentions enables the emergence of JOINT ATTENTION and IMITATION at around 9-12 months joint attention and imitation open new possibilities for learning from others understanding others: what happens at 6 months? infants begin to understand the intentions behind others' actions understanding others: what happens at 9/12 months? understanding others' intentions allows for imitation and joint attention theory of mind 1. ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others 2. to understand that other people can have desires, knowledge and beliefs that differ from one's own understanding others' desires: study violation of expectation paradigm 12 month olds saw an experimenter look at one of 2 stuffed kittens with vocal and facial expressions of joy screen descended and when raised again, the experimenter was holding one of the kittens either: holding the kitten they were excited about holding the other kitten RESULTS: 8 month olds would look at both displays for roughly the same amount of time 12 month olds would look LONGER when the experimenter was holding the other kitten versus the one they were originally excited about SUGGESTS that 12 month olds understand that desires are linked to actions suggests that 8 month olds don't understand that desires are linked to actions when does the understanding that desires leads to actions emerge? around 1 year old kitten study results the 12 month olds looked longer when the experimenter was holding the other kitten (not the one they were excited about) shows they understand how desires inform actions 8 month olds looked at both for the same amount of time (shows that they don't understand the link between desires and actions) distinguishing the self from others fully understanding others' desires requires the appreciation that other people are SEPARATE FROM THE SELF born with IMPLICIT SENSE OF SELF as separate from others (rooting reflex) more EXPLICIT SENSE OF SELF develops later 18-24 month olds pass "rouge test": recognize themselves in the mirror proof that we're born with implicit sense of self as separate from others rooting reflex: if someone brushes an infant's cheek, they will turn in direct of touch and open mouth if infant touches own cheek, will not turn in that direction proof of explicit sense of self rouge test when infants recognize themselves in the mirror when do explicit versus implicit senses of self develop? implicit: innate (rooting reflex) explicit: 18-24 months (rouge test) rouge test when infants are placed in front of mirror with a dot on their face a way to determine if they have explicit sense of self if the infant touches their own forehead rather than the mirror, they pass being able to ____________ the self from ______ enables better _________________ of others unique desires distinguish, others, understanding being able to distinguish the self from others enables better understanding of others unique desires can correctly infer what someone else wants, even if it is something different from what they want _______ year olds can predict a character's actions based on the character's desires, rather than based on their own desires 2 younger children use their own desires to predict a character's actions ie. if asked "which toy do you think that the character wants to play with?" at 2 years and older, even if the child themself prefers to play with dolls, they would be able to understand that someone else may prefer to play with the truck three components of theory of mind understanding that other people have desires knowledge intentions and that these can differ from your own understanding others' knowledge: study 3 year olds understand what people know and what they don't know study: watched 2 adults name familiar objects one adult named the objects correctly the other adult named the objects incorrectly then the child learned names for new objects RESULTS: more likely to learn the new word from the adult who previously named familiar objects correctly SHOWS that 3 year olds make judgments about others' reliability ____ year olds understand what people know and what they don't know 3 results and significance of the word study 1. kids = more likely to learn the new word from the adult who had previously used the correct label for the object 3 year olds can understand who knows what they're talking about and who doesn't (understand their knowledge) 3 year olds make judgements about others' reliability understanding expertise emerges when? 3-4 year olds understand that specific people may have specific knowledge in certain areas understanding expertise: study observed 2 strangers interacting with tools and broken toys adult 1: knew the names of the tools but not how to fix the toys adult 2: knew how to fix the toys but not the names of the tools RESULTS children turned to different adults depending on what they wanted to achieve went to adult 1 if they wanted to know the names of new things went to adult 2 if they wanted to fix a broken object implications for learning from the understanding expertise study kids tend to view all adults as experts, but at around 3-4, things get more nuanced at 3-4, children are selective in who they choose to learn from they learn from RELIABLE others they learn SPECIFIC KNOWLEDGE from people who they perceive to be experts on that topic ie. kids figure out which parents to go to for help with math homework versus history emergence of rudimentary understanding that beliefs lead to actions emerges when? 3 years old when asked why a person is behaving in a certain way, will answer by referencing CERTAIN BELIEFS: ie. "why is Matt looking for his dog?" answer "he thinks the dog ran away" BUT understanding of others' beliefs is limited in important ways false-belief problems kids under 5 years old have a hard time understanding that they might know something that is true and that someone else might believe that something is untrue tasks can test a child's understanding that other people will behave consistently with their knowledge/belief even if a child knows this knowledge/belief is false most 3 year olds fail most 5 year olds pass (correct response indicates a developed theory of mind) ie. smarties task smarties task: do 3 year olds pass? what about 5 year olds? 3 year olds fail 5 year olds pass (indicates a developed theory of mind) smarties task tests if child understands that other people can have beliefs that they themselves know are false "what do you think is in the box?" "smarties!" "why don't you open the box and see?" "oh, it's pencils" "let's close the box. what do you think your friend Jeremy would say is in the box is he saw it?" "pencils!" results of the smarties task 3 year olds fail: incorrectly think that other children will know that there are pencils inside the box AND say that they always knew there were pencils inside the box 5 year olds pass: correctly say that others will think there are smarties inside the box social cognition development timeline 6 months: understand others' ACTION INTENTIONS 9-12 months: JOINT ATTENTION and IMITATION 1 year: basic understanding of others' DESIRES 1.5-2 years: EXPLICIT SENSE OF SELF indicated by passing Rouge test 2 years: greater understanding that OTHERS' DESIRES CAN BE DIFFERENT from one's own 3 years: sensitive to whether someone is KNOWLEDGABLE basic understanding that BELIEFS LEAD TO ACTIONS but FAIL at false-belief tests 5 years: more FULLY DEVELOPED theory of mind and PASS false belief tests stability of social cognition skills children that are better able to UNDERSTAND GOAL-DIRECTED ACTION at 6 months old also show better performance on FALSE BELIEF tasks at 4 years old suggests that individual difference in social cognitive skills are stable nativist explanation: development in theory of mind theory of mind module: INNATE BRAIN MECHANISM devoted to understanding other people that matures over the first 5 years of life allows us to rapidly make additional gains in this area evidence: newborns have an inherent INTEREST IN FACES culturally UNIVERSAL DEVELOPMENTAL TRAJECTORY of theory of mind temporoparietal junction and autism spectrum disorder evidence for nativist theory: culturally universal developmental trajectory of theory of mind across countries, most 3 year olds fail (14% pass rate) false belief tasks most 5 year olds pass (85% pass rate) false belief tasks temporoparietal junction (TPJ) brain area consistently active across diff theory of mind tasks different brain areas are involved in other complex cognitive processes maybe this is the site of the theory of mind module (nativist theory)? specialized for social processing? TPJ and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) children with ASD struggle with THEORY OF MIND find false belief tasks very difficult even as teens children with ASD have atypical sizes and activity in TPJ 3 explanations of development of theory of mind 1. nativist view 2. improvements in executive functioning 3. contribution of social interactions contribution of social interactions: explanation of development in theory of mind interactions with other people are critical for developing theory of mind evidence: caregiver's use of mental state talk = correlated with preschoolers' theory of mind ability mental state talk: statements and questions that refer to other peoples' minds, using words like "think, know, want" preschoolers that have siblings are better at theory of mind tasks esp if sibling is of a diff gender improvements in executive functioning: explanation of development in theory of mind executive functioning: set of cognitive processes that enable cognitive control of behaviour such as planning, focused attention, juggling multiple tasks false belief tasks require executive functioning skills evidence that as executive functioning improves, so does theory of mind r = 0.4 executive functioning set of cognitive processes that enable cognitive control of behaviour, such as planning, focused attention and juggling multiple tasks required for false belief tasks implications of executive functioning explanation of development of theory of mind individual differences in executive functioning are responsible for individual differences in theory of mind evidence for the contributions of social interactions explanation of development of theory of mind 1. caregivers that use more mental state talk raise children with higher theory of mind ability use of words like "think, know, want" children with siblings are better at theory of mind tasks (esp if they have a sibling of a diff gender) implications of social interaction view of developing theory of mind caregivers can foster children's social cognition by using mental state talk providing opportunities for interactions with diff people encouraging joint attention how does theory of mind develop? 1. nativist view improvements in executive functioning contribution of social interactions all of the above views likely play a role maturation of brain regions involved in understanding others improved executive functioning ability interactions with other people summary: how do children learn? 1. trial and error from birth statistical learning from birth observation and imitation from 9-12 months old being taught by others 3 year olds are more likely to learn from adults they see as reliable and expert in a domain summary of understanding others' minds 1. ability to understand others' minds develops gradually, starting with understanding others' intentions basic theory of mind is developed by age 5 development of theory of mind is due to maturation of brain regions involved in social cognition, improved executive functioning, and social interactions improvements in social cognition enable learning from others through social learning through joint attention and imitation