Three Minute Review COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT Piagets Stages 1

Three Minute Review COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT Piaget’s Stages 1. Sensorimotor Stage (0 -2) • physics, senses, movement, object permanence 2. Preoperational Stage (2 -7) • symbolic, egocentric, no conservation 3. Concrete Operational (7 -12) • • • conservation of number, length, volume, mass can take others’ perspective become more logical 4. Formal Operational (12+) • • • scientific thought, abstract reasoning critiques of Piaget’s theories information processing perspective

THEORY OF MIND • Why is the human brain so big (relative to body size)? – social group size • bigger groups require bigger brains to keep track of relationships • optimal group size for humans: 150 – social (Machiavellian) intelligence • example: reciprocal altruism • Testing theory of mind – Heider’s moving shapes • people can’t help but attribute “minds” to animate objects – False belief tests: Sally-Ann test, Smarties test – False picture tests – lying

THEORY OF MIND • normal children – develop theory of mind around age 4 – do better with false belief than false picture test • autistic children – absent/impaired theory of mind – do okay with false picture than false belief – not due solely to intellectual impairments • Down’s syndrome children pass theory of mind tests – Asperger’s syndrome: high-functioning autism

Test Yourself In the container test, children are shown a familiar kind of container such as an M&M bag and asked what the bag contains. Most 3 - and 4 -year-old children respond appropriately and are then asked to open the bag. Once opened, the bag is found to contain an unpredicted item, such as a pencil. The bag is then closed, and the children are asked to guess what another person who has not looked inside will think is in it. What typically happens? A. Most 3 - and 4 -year-olds will answer “M&Ms. ” B. Most 3 - and 4 -year-olds will answer “pencil. ” C. Most 3 -year-olds will answer with “pencil, ” but most 4 -yearolds will answer “M&Ms. ” D. Most 3 -year-olds will answer with “M&Ms, ” but most 4 -yearolds will answer “pencil. ” E. Most 3 -year-olds will give a specific prediction, but most 4 year-olds will refuse to answer.

Recommended Homework • Prior to Tuesday’s class, I would like you try at least one experiment from the web site below. You can pick between experiments on your perception of age, race, gender, and American presidential candidates. https: //implicit. harvard. edu/implicit/demo/measureyourattitudes. html • On Tuesday, we will discuss the rationale behind these experiments and it will be easier for you to understand if you’ve tried it yourself.

Autism • There is from the start an extreme autistic aloneness that, whenever possible, disregards, ignores, shuts out anything that comes to the child from the outside. ” -- Leo Kanner, 1943 • deficits in social interaction – don’t look at others • impaired communication – problems with both verbal and nonverbal communication • restricted interests – focus on details – may seek sensory stimulation (e. g. , body rocking)

Social Perception • How do we perceive ourselves? • How do we perceive others?

Self Awareness: The Mirror Test Who passes the test? • human children > 15 mos. • chimps > 6 -8 years old • dolphins • one gorilla (Koko) • some monkeys? • while individual is asleep or anesthetized, put a red spot on their face/body • see how they behave when they see themselves in the mirror • do they realize it’s them?

Is there one “self”? : Roles

Self Complexity

Reference Groups • We see ourselves in contrast to those around us • bronze medalists are typically happier than silver medalists • how good are we at judging the reference group?

Better-than-average Effect – 90% of adults consider themselves “above average” drivers – 94% of college professors rated themselves better than average – in one study, no college-bound seniors rated themselves below average and 25% rated themselves in the top 1%

Incompetence • Many people are incompetent at judging their own incompetence across many domains (humor, grammar, logic) Sense of Humor

Self Appraisal • most people see themselves in a move positive light than others see them • most people see their current selves as more positive than they see their past selves • people with high self-esteem make downward comparisons; people with high selfesteem make upward comparisons

Self-fulfilling prophecy The Pygmalion effect • In the myth, Pygmalion created a statue that he treated with such affection, it came to life • 1968 experiment in a lower class San Francisco elementary school Robert Rosenthal – gave students an IQ test – told teachers that the test had identified students who were “late bloomers” and would show a spurt in IQ growth – the experimenters randomly selected 20% of the pupils who were identified to the teachers as late bloomers (in reality, these students were no different in their IQs than the remaining 80%) – after one year those students showed significantly higher IQ scores (an increase of 12 points compared to 4 points in the other students) • works on rats too!

Attribution • the process by which people infer the causes of other people’s behavior • Example: Why did your boss yell at your co-worker? – co-worker was slacking off and deserved it? – boss is always a hothead? – boss is usually easygoing but is undergoing a divorce that has her stressed out? – boss really needed this particular job to be done right because her job is on the line External factors • people, events, situation, environment Internal Factors • traits, needs, intentions

Consider an Example Kelley’s 3 questions in making an attribution • does this person regularly behave this way in this situation? • do others regularly behave this way in this situation? • does this person behave this way in many other situations?

Person Bias fundamental attribution error • most common error • people give too much weight to personality and too little weight to the situation • more common in Westernized societies

Actor-Observer Discrepancy • I did it because of the situation; You did it because of your personality • can be influenced by point of view – see self on videotape personality attribution – see videotape from other’s POV situation attribution

Prior Information Effects • Mental representations of people (schemas) can effect our interpretation of them – Kelley’s study • students had a guest speaker • before the speaker came, half got a written bio saying speaker was “very warm”, half got bio saying speaker was “rather cold” • “very warm” group rated guest more positively than “rather cold” group

Attractiveness Bias

Attitudes • “beliefs tinged with emotion” • e. g. , good vs. bad, moral vs. immoral

Cognitive Dissonance • • attitudes must be consistent with behavior if they are not, people experience discomfort must either change behavior or change attitude usually it’s easier to change the attitude

Insufficient Justification Effect • If people cannot justify their behavior, they’re likely to change their beliefs about it • Experiment (Festinger & Carlsmith, 1959) – gave subjects a boring task – asked subjects to lie to the next subject and say the experiment was exciting – paid ½ the subjects $1, other ½ $20 – then asked subjects to rate boringness of task – $1 group rated the task as far more fun than the $20 group – each group needed a justification for lying • $20 group had an external justification of money • since $1 isn’t very much money, $1 group said task was fun

Initiation Rites

Belief in a Just World • belief that people get what they deserve • blaming the victim – “gays deserve AIDS” – the rape victim was “asking for it”