PS2040 - Foundations of social cognitions

Definition: An observer observes a mdoel complete an act, and produces a recognisable copy of this act

Meltzoff and Moore (1977) classic 'tongue protusion' experiment

Imitation based on Activie Intermodal Mapping< linking self and other

Debate Around Neonatal Imitation

'Like Me' hypothesis (Meltzoff, 2007) - newborn immitation is communicative (Nagy & Molnar, 2004)?

Just reflexes or automatic - an innate releasing mechanism (Ainsfield, 1991)

Oostenbroek et al. 2016 - argue against neonatal imitation being a foundation of social cognition - infants were shown 11 gestures at 1, 3, 6 and 9 weeks - coded whether infant displayed them - found no evidence of a true imitation effect - claim that previous studies were limited methodologically

Definition - imitation after a delay

Meltzoff (1988) - 9 month olds imitate after 24 hours - watch experimenter model action (e.g. button press) -> come back 24 hours later

Meltzoff (1995) - 14 month olds imitate after 2 months and 4 months using light box

6 month olds defer imitation (Barr et al., 1996) -> important for social learning

- Over imitation (Horner & Whiten, 2005): copy actions which are not necessary to end goal

- Inferred intentions (Carpenter et al., 2005) - assume adult has intention behind actions

Gaze Following - start to follow gaze direction at 6 months old (D'Entremont et al., 1997)

- 12 month olds only follow if eyes are open (Brooks & Meltzoff, 2002)

- 12 month olds will physically try and see what experimenter is looking at (Moll & Tomasello, 2004)

Pointing

two forms: proto-imperative, proto-declarative

- pointing begins around 11-12 months (Carpenter et al., 1998)

- 12 month olds point to provide information for others (Liszkowski et al., 2006)

- 12-18 month olds check the adult is looking (Franco & Butterworth, 1996)

- Perner (1991) - gaze following is learnt and pointing is reinforced

- Tomasello and Haberl (2003) - 12 month olds know what is new for other poeple - will point to new toy following experimenter's request

- pointing to draw attention to self and get a reaction from parents (Moore & D'Entremont, 2001)

An Experiment

Liszkowski et al. (2004) - experiment tested alternative theories of pointing

4 hypotheses:1) infants point for themselves 2)infants want adult attention to themselves 3)infants want to direct adults attention to the object 4) infants want to share attention and interest in object

- puppet appears and experimetner ignores puppet, waits for point and acts in line with 4 points

Results - most pointing happened in the joint attention condition - infants continue to point to try to get adult to look if adult directed attention to them - pointed less over time in other conditions

Hamlin et al. (2007) - 6 month olds understand who is helpful and who is not

When does prosocial behaviour appear?

- helping and cooperation at 14 months (Warneken & Tomasello, 2007) - several tasks where children can help and cooperate

- sharing at 2 years old - but only if adult states their desire (Brownell et al., 2009)

Why are young children prosocial?

- because they are rewarded by parents? or do they get an intrinsic reward? Warneken & Tomasello (2008): when reward recieved, less likely to help at 20 months old

- because of concern for others? Vaish et al. (2009): 18 month olds more prosocial if believe adult was harmed