PSYC 304 Midterm 1 PDF

Midterm 1 October 7th; 2:35pm – 4:05pm You will not be let in if you arrive more than 30 mins late McMed 521: Last name starts with A - F McMed 522: Last name starts with G – Z Covers Lectures 1 – 4 and Introduction – Chapter 4 in the book 50 multiple choice questions List of import...

Midterm 1 October 7th; 2:35pm – 4:05pm You will not be let in if you arrive more than 30 mins late McMed 521: Last name starts with A - F McMed 522: Last name starts with G – Z Covers Lectures 1 – 4 and Introduction – Chapter 4 in the book 50 multiple choice questions List of important terms and practice questions to be released by the end of the week  Cognitive Development (cont) PSYC 304 Sonia Krol, PhD September 30th, 2024 Outline Learning view of cognitive development Learning about the social world Understanding others’ and intentions Theory of mind Explanations of development of theory of mind Learning View 4 How do children learn from the environment? Children actively learn from the environment on their own Trial and error Statistical learning Caregivers play an important role in children’s learning: Teach children skills via scaffolding 5 Scaffolding A process in which a caregiver provides a temporary framework that supports children’s thinking at a higher level than children could manage on their own Physically assisting a child Demonstrating a skill Providing explicit instructions Breaking down a task 6 Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) Scaffolding should be geared towards ZDP ZDP: The difference between what a child can do without help and what they can achieve with scaffolding from a caregiver 7 Lev Vygotsky Private Speech Adults teach children skills and regulate their behaviour by providing verbal instruction Around age 3, children start regulating their own behaviour with private speech Tell themselves out loud what to do the same way their parents do More likely on more difficult tasks Most frequent in 4-6 year olds Around age 7, private speech decreases and goes “underground” becoming thought 8 Lev Vygotsky Private Speech 9 How do children learn from the environment? Children actively learn from the environment on their own Trial and error Statistical learning Caregivers play an important role in children’s learning: Teach children skills via scaffolding Determining the quality of children’s environment 10 Measuring the Home Environment Home Observation for the Measurement of the Environment (HOME) Gold standard Researchers visit a child’s home and observe the environment and interview the caregiver Checklist of characteristics that reflect 2 factors: Emotional support: Parents’ degree of responsiveness to their child and expression of positive emotions Cognitive stimulation: Degree to which the parent engages and involves the child, provides them with stimulating toys, and variety in daily life Higher scores indicate higher quality home environment 11 Bradley & Caldwell, 1979 HOME – Emotional Support Items 12 HOME – Cognitive Stimulation Items 13 Home Environment Matters A LOT Higher scores on the HOME positively predict children’s cognitive skills and development IQ Math and reading comprehension Language ability 14 Bradley et al., 1989; 2001 Poverty Matters Children in low SES households tend to score lower on IQ and academic achievements tests Academic abilities at the start of kindergarten 15 Ganache et al., 2013; Larson et al., 2015 Poverty Matters Children in low SES households tend to score lower on IQ and academic achievements tests Due to numerous factors: Inadequate nutrition can interfere with brain development Greater chance of conflict between caregivers which results in emotional distress which interferes with learning Lower quality home environment Higher SES is positively correlated with HOME 16 Ganache et al., 2013 Home Environment and SES SES moderates the impact of home environment on IQ Genes Environment Proportion of Variance in IQ Proportion of Variance in IQ For low SES families, differences in IQ are almost completely explained by family environment, with genes playing almost no role For high SES families, differences in IQ are almost completely explained by genetics Suggests that low SES children do not get to develop their full genetic cognitive potential 17 Turkheimer et al., 2003 Daycare Care Matters Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD): Longitudinal study conducted across 10 cities in the USA examining the effects of child care on cognitive development ~800 participants assessed at various time points in the first 3 years of life Measured: Child care setup (e.g. day care center vs. at-home-child care center vs. babysitter) Quality of child care Emotional support Cognitive stimulation: fostering exploration + stimulating toys + language stimulation Child’s cognitive and language ability 18 NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2000 Daycare Matters Results: High quality child care, especially daycare centres, linked with better cognitive and language skills in the first 3 years of life Low quality child care associated with lower cognitive and language skills Language stimulation was particularly important factor Children in day care centers performed better than children in at- home-child-care centers No difference between kids in the exclusive care of mom vs. out of home child care 19 NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2000 Daycare Intervention Programs for Low SES Kids Aim to foster the cognitive development of children from low SES families by focusing on cognitive stimulation E.g Head Start Program in the USA Results: Children who participate in these programs have better cognitive skills than the children who don’t But the cognitive effects don’t last once the program is over BUT participants tend to be more likely to finish high school and enroll in university, less likely to be held back a grade, and are less likely to engage in criminal activity 20 Number of Risk Factors Matters Most The more environmental risk factors in a child’s environment, the lower the child’s IQ score Indicates that the number of risk factors present matters more than the presence of any particular risk factor 21 Sameroff et al., 1993 Summary of Cognitive Development Each perspective contributes to our understanding of cognitive development (i.e. all are valuable) Piaget’s theory: Good overall descriptive framework of children’s thinking across various ages Information processing view: Children’s cognitive development occurs gradually (not in a stage-like fashion) via improvements in information-processing, especially executive functioning Nativist view: Some cognitive domains emerge earlier and develop faster because we are born with innate knowledge/specialized learning mechanisms in domains of evolutionary importance Learning view: Children learn a great deal from their environment Actively interpreting what they observe around them via trial and error and statistical learning Caregivers play an important role in children’s cognitive development via teaching and the quality of environment provided 22 Development of Social Cognition PSYC 304 Sonia Krol, PhD  What’s in a mind? Knowledge Desires Intentions All of these have to be inferred, cannot be observed Children come to understand each of these at different ages Understanding Action Intentions 6 months: Emergence of understanding others’ intentions Study: Violation of expectation paradigm 6 month olds were habituated to a hand reaching for a ball that was beside a doll Test: Some infants shown a hand reaching for the ball Other infants shown a hand reaching for the doll Which display do infants look at longer? Woodward, 1998 Understanding Action Intentions Habituation: Test: Results: Infants who saw the hand reach for the doll looked longer at the display than infants who saw the hand reach for the ball Suggests that infants understand the intentions behind actions Woodward, 1998 Understanding Action Intentions as Goal Directed Habituation: Test: Results: Even when the position of the ball and the doll were reversed, infants who saw the hand reach for the doll still looked longer at the display than infants who saw the hand reach for the ball Shows that the infants understood that the original action was directed at a specific object, not at a specific location Woodward, 1998 Understanding Action Intentions as Uniquely Human Habituation: Test: Results: Infants only look longer at goal-directed reaches if performed by a human, but not when a mechanical claw “reaches” for the toy Shows that the infants understand that only humans can have intentions Woodward, 1998 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 vs. when an adult tries to give a toy, but accidentally drops it Behne et al., 2005 Importance of Understanding Intentions Step towards understanding the minds of others But cannot yet understand the psychological motivations behind intentions Enables joint attention 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 Examples of Joint Attention Joint Attention and Learning Joint attention is critical for learning from others Especially language development and social communication “ball” “ball” Importance of Understanding Intentions Step towards understanding the minds of others Enables joint attention Enables imitation Imitation Voluntarily matching another person’s behaviour Emerges between 9-12 months old Imitation in Newborns 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 sticking tongue out Sticking tongue out is a common, more general newborn response to stimuli they find interesting Suggests that newborns’ matching of adult’s sticking tongue out is coincidental and simply an indication of interest Jones, 1996 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 Imitating Intentional Actions Study: 12 month olds observed an adult turn on a light with her head Hands occupied: forced to use head Hands free: freely choosing to use her head What does the infant imitate? Gergely et al., 2002 Imitating Intentional Actions Results: Hands occupied: turned on light using hand Hands free: turned on light using head Shows that children imitate the goals of actions, not actions themselves More generally, implies that children are actively thinking about what they are observing Not passive! Gergely et al., 2002 Summary So Far 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 9-12 months Joint attention and imitation open new possibilities for learning from others Development of Theory of Mind Theory of Mind Ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others, and to understand that other people can have desires, knowledge, and beliefs that differ from one’s own Knowledge Desires Intentions Understanding Others’ Desires Understanding that desires lead to actions emerges around 1 year of age 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, the experimenter was holding one of the kittens Phillips et al., 2002 Understanding Others’ Desires Ooh, look at the kitty!! Holding kitten she was excited about Vs. Holding the other Ooh, look at the kitty!! kitten (not the one she was excited about) Phillips et al., 2002 Understanding Others’ Desires Understanding that desires lead to actions emerges by 1 year of age 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, the experimenter was holding one of the kittens Does the child understand which kitten the experimenter wants to hold? Which scenario did the child look at longer? Phillips et al., 2002 Understanding Others’ Desires Results: 12 month olds look longer when the experimenter was holding the other kitten vs. the one they were originally looking at Suggests that 12 month olds understand that desires are linked with actions 8 month olds look at the 2 displays for similar amounts of time Suggests that they don’t understand that desires are linked with actions Phillips et al., 2002 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: if someone brushes their cheek, infant will turn in direction of touch and open their mouth If infant touches their own cheek, will not turn in that direction More explicit sense of self develops later: 18-24 month olds pass “rouge test” Recognize themselves in a mirror Rouge Test Understanding Others’ Desires Being able to distinguish self from others enables better understanding of others’ unique desires 2 year olds can predict a character’s actions based on the character’s desires, rather than based on their own desires Younger children use own desires to predict a character’s actions Which toy do you think that the character wants to play with? Theory of Mind Knowledge Desires Intentions Evaluating Others’ Knowledge 3 year olds understand what people know and what they don’t know Study: Watched 2 adults name familiar objects One adult named objects correctly and the other adult named the objects incorrectly That’s a fork That’s a ball Koenig et al, 2004 Evaluating Others’ Knowledge 3 year olds understand what people know and what they don’t know Study: Watched 2 adults name familiar objects One adult named objects correctly and the other adult named the objects incorrectly Then, child learned names for new objects That’s a That’s a mido toma Koenig et al, 2004 Evaluating Others’ Knowledge Results: more likely to learn a new word from adult who previously named familiar objects correctly Shows that 3 year olds make judgments about others’ reliability Koenig et al, 2004 Understanding Expertise 3-4 year olds understand that specific people may have specific knowledge in certain areas Study: Observed 2 strangers interacting with tools and broken toys Adult 1: Knew the names of tool but not how to fix the toys Adult 2: Knew how to fix the toys but not the names of the tools Children turned to different adults depending on what they wanted to achieve Went to Adult 1 if wanted to know the names of new things Went to Adult 2 if wanted to fix a broken object Kushnir et al., 2013 Implications for Learning Children are selective in who they choose to learn from Learn from reliable others Learn specific knowledge from people that they perceive to be experts in that topic Understanding Knowledge Leads to Action 3 years olds: Emergence of rudimentary understanding that beliefs’ lead to actions When asked why a person is behaving in a certain way, will answer by making reference to beliefs E.g. Q: “Why is Matt looking for his dog?”; A: “He thinks the dog ran away” But understanding of others’ beliefs is limited in important ways Difficulties understanding that people will act according to their beliefs, even if they’re false False-Belief Problems Tasks that test a child’s understanding that other people will behave consistent with their knowledge/beliefs even if a child knows this knowledge/beliefs are false Most 3 year olds fail Most 5 year olds pass Correct responses indicate a developed theory of mind Example: Smarties Task 3 year olds fail: Incorrectly think that other children will know that there are pencils inside the box + say that they always knew there were pencils in the box 5 year olds pass: Correctly say that others will think there are Smarties inside the box Gopnik et al., 1988 Other Examples Social Cognition Development Timeline 6 months: understanding others’ action intentions 9-12 months: joint attention and imitation 1 year old: basic understanding others’ desires 1.5 - 2 years old: explicit sense of self indicated by passing Rouge test 2 years old: greater understanding that others’ desires can be different from one’s own 3 years old: sensitive to whether someone is knowledgeable in a topic or not + basic understanding that beliefs lead to action but fail at false-belief tests 5 years old: 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 also show better performance on false belief tasks at 4 years Suggests that individual differences in social cognitive skills are stable Aschersleben et al., 2008 Explaining Developments in Theory of Mind 1. Nativist Theory Theory of mind module: Innate brain mechanism devoted to understanding other people that matures over the first 5 years of life Evidence: Newborns have an inherent interest in faces Culturally universal developmental trajectory of theory of mind False-Belief Tasks Around the World Across countries, most 3 year olds fail (14% pass rate) and most 5 year olds pass (85%) false belief tasks 1. Nativist Theory Theory of mind module: Innate brain mechanism devoted to understanding other people that matures over the first 5 years of life Evidence: Newborns have an inherent interest in faces Culturally universal developmental trajectory of theory of mind Temporoparietal junction and autism spectrum disorder Temporoparietal Junction (TPJ) Brain area consistently active across different theory of mind tasks Different brains areas are involved in other complex cognitive processes Temporoparietal junction TPJ and Autism Spectrum Disorders Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) struggle with theory of mind Find false-belief tasks very difficult even as teenagers Children with ASD have atypical sizes and activity in TPJ 2. Improvements in Executive Functioning False belief tasks require executive functioning skills Evidence that as executive functioning improves, so does theory of mind r = 0.4 Implies that individual differences in executive functioning are responsible for individual differences in theory of mind 3. Contribution of Social Interactions Interactions with other people are critical for the development of theory of mind Evidence: Caregivers’ use of mental state talk is correlated with preschooler’s theory of mind ability Mental state talk: Statements and questions that refer to other people’s “minds” using words such as “think”, “know”, and “want” Preschoolers that have siblings (vs. no siblings) are better at theory of mind tasks Especially if sibling is of a different gender Implications Caregivers can foster children’s social cognition by: Using mental state talk Providing opportunities for interactions with different people Encouraging joint attention How does theory of mind develop? All these explanations likely play a role Maturation of brain regions involved in understanding others Improved executive functioning ability Interactions with other people How do children learn? Trial and error From birth Statistical learning From birth Observation and imitation 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 Teaching is optimized when scaffolding is provided in the zone of proximal development Summary of Development of Social Cognition The 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