Three Minute Review. critiques of Piaget s theories information processing perspective

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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 1

2 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. 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. 2

3 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? 3

4 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? 4

5 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 5

6 Robert Rosenthal 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 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 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? 6

7 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 7

8 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 8

9 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 9