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Wang Z, Shao Y. Picture book reading improves children's learning understanding. Br J Dev Psychol 2024. [PMID: 38415288 DOI: 10.1111/bjdp.12479] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2022] [Accepted: 02/16/2024] [Indexed: 02/29/2024]
Abstract
Mental state reasoning is an integral part of children's teaching and learning understanding. This study investigated whether a picture book reading approach focusing on mental state discourse and contrasting perspectives in a preschool classroom setting would improve children's teaching and learning understanding and school readiness. In total, 104 children from four classrooms aged between 46 and 64 months (53 girls, M = 54.03 months, SD = 3.68) participated in the study. Half of the classrooms were randomly assigned to an experimental group where teachers read picture books rich in mental state discourse and engaged in intensive discussions with children for eight weeks. Children's false belief understanding and teaching and learning understanding were measured before and after the eight-week period. The result revealed that picture book reading improved children's learning understanding with a medium effect size, controlling for demographic variables, children's verbal ability, inhibition, and initial false belief understanding. The experimental group children further demonstrated more advanced school readiness 18 months after the intervention ended in a follow-up study using a teacher questionnaire.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhenlin Wang
- The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
- Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
| | - Yihan Shao
- Shanghai SIPO Polytechnic, Shanghai, China
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2
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Lenaerts T, Saponara M, Pacheco JM, Santos FC. Evolution of a theory of mind. iScience 2024; 27:108862. [PMID: 38303708 PMCID: PMC10830857 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.108862] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2023] [Revised: 12/04/2023] [Accepted: 01/08/2024] [Indexed: 02/03/2024] Open
Abstract
Even though the Theory of Mind in upper primates has been under investigation for decades, how it may evolve remains an open problem. We propose here an evolutionary game theoretical model where a finite population of individuals may use reasoning strategies to infer a response to the anticipated behavior of others within the context of a sequential dilemma, i.e., the Centipede Game. We show that strategies with bounded reasoning evolve and flourish under natural selection, provided they are allowed to make reasoning mistakes and a temptation for higher future gains is in place. We further show that non-deterministic reasoning co-evolves with an optimism bias that may lead to the selection of new equilibria, closely associated with average behavior observed in experimental data. This work reveals both a novel perspective on the evolution of bounded rationality and a co-evolutionary link between the evolution of Theory of Mind and the emergence of misbeliefs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tom Lenaerts
- Machine Learning Group, Département d’Informatique, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
- Artificial Intelligence Lab, Vakgroep Computerwetenschappen, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
- Center for Human-Compatible AI, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94702, USA
| | - Marco Saponara
- Machine Learning Group, Département d’Informatique, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
| | - Jorge M. Pacheco
- Centro de Biologia Molecular e Ambiental, Universidade do Minho, 4710 - 057 Braga, Portugal
- Departamento de Matemática e Aplicações, Universidade do Minho, 4710 - 057 Braga, Portugal
- ATP-group, P-2744-016 Porto Salvo, Portugal
| | - Francisco C. Santos
- ATP-group, P-2744-016 Porto Salvo, Portugal
- INESC-ID and Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, IST-Taguspark, 2744-016 Porto Salvo, Portugal
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3
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Abstract
Fathers have been an important source of child endurance and prosperity since the dawn of civilization, promoting adaptation to social rules, defining cultural meaning systems, teaching daily living skills, and providing the material background against which children developed; still, the recent reformulation in the role of the father requires theory-building. Paternal caregiving is rare in mammals, occurring in 3-5% of species, expresses in multiple formats, and involves flexible neurobiological accommodations to ecological conditions and active caregiving. Here, we discuss father contribution to resilience across development. Our model proposes three tenets of resilience - plasticity, sociality, and meaning - and discussion focuses on father-specific contributions to each tenet at different developmental stages; newborn, infant, preschooler, child, and adolescent. Father's style of high arousal, energetic physicality, guided participation in daily skills, joint adventure, and conflict resolution promotes children's flexible approach and social competence within intimate bonds and social groups. By expanding children's interests, sharpening cognitions, tuning affect regulation, encouraging exploration, and accompanying the search for identity, fathers support the sense of meaning, enhancing the human-specific dimension of resilience. We end by highlighting pitfalls to paternal contribution, including absence, abuse, rigidity, expectations, and gender typing, and the need to formulate novel theories to accommodate the "involved dad."
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Affiliation(s)
- Ruth Feldman
- Center for Developmental Social Neuroscience, Reichman University,Israel
- Yale Child Study Center, New Haven, USA
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4
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Glass D, Yuill N. Social motor synchrony in autism spectrum conditions: A systematic review. Autism 2023:13623613231213295. [PMID: 38014541 DOI: 10.1177/13623613231213295] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2023]
Abstract
LAY ABSTRACT When two people interact, they often fall into sync with one another by moving their bodies at the same time. Some say autistic people are not as good as non-autistic people at moving at the same time as a partner. This has led some researchers to ask whether measuring synchrony might help diagnose autism. We reviewed the research so far to look at differences in Social Motor Synchrony (SMS) (the way we move together) between autistic people and people they interact with. The research suggests that interactions involving an autistic partner (either two autistic partners, or an autistic and non-autistic partner) show lower synchrony than a non-autistic pair. However, we recognised elements in the research so far that may have affected SMS in interactions involving an autistic person. One way SMS may have been affected in research so far might be the way interactions have been set up in the research studies. Few papers studied interactions between two autistic people or looked at synchrony in comfortable environments with autistic-preferred tasks. The studies also do not explain why synchrony might be different, or weaker, in pairs involving autistic partners. We use these limitations to suggest improvements for future research.
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Bugnyar T. Why are ravens smart? Exploring the social intelligence hypothesis. J Ornithol 2023; 165:15-26. [PMID: 38225936 PMCID: PMC10787684 DOI: 10.1007/s10336-023-02111-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2023] [Revised: 09/01/2023] [Accepted: 09/07/2023] [Indexed: 01/17/2024]
Abstract
Ravens and other corvids are renowned for their 'intelligence'. For long, this reputation has been based primarily on anecdotes but in the last decades experimental evidence for impressive cognitive skills has accumulated within and across species. While we begin to understand the building blocks of corvid cognition, the question remains why these birds have evolved such skills. Focusing on Northern Ravens Corvus corax, I here try to tackle this question by relating current hypotheses on brain evolution to recent empirical data on challenges faced in the birds' daily life. Results show that foraging ravens meet several assumptions for applying social intelligence: (1) they meet repeatedly at foraging sites, albeit individuals have different site preferences and vary in grouping dynamics; (1) foraging groups are structured by dominance rank hierarchies and social bonds; (3) individual ravens memorize former group members and their relationship valence over years, deduce third-party relationships and use their social knowledge in daily life by supporting others in conflicts and intervening in others' affiliations. Hence, ravens' socio-cognitive skills may be strongly shaped by the 'complex' social environment experienced as non-breeders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas Bugnyar
- Department of Behavioral and Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Djerassiplatz 1, 1030 Vienna, Austria
- Konrad Lorenz Forschungsstelle, Core Faculty for Behavior and Cognition, University of Vienna, Fischerau 13, 4645 Grünau im Almtal, Austria
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6
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Wan Y, Wei Y, Xu B, Zhu L, Tanenhaus MK. Musical coordination affects children's perspective-taking, but musical synchrony does not. Dev Sci 2023; 26:e13367. [PMID: 36586401 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13367] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2022] [Revised: 12/17/2022] [Accepted: 12/23/2022] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
Perspective-taking, which is important for communication and social activities, can be cultivated through joint actions, including musical activities in children. We examined how rhythmic activities requiring coordination affect perspective-taking in a referential communication task with 100 Chinese 4- to 6-year-old children. In Study 1, 5- to 6-year-old children played an instrument with a virtual partner in one of three coordination conditions: synchrony, asynchrony, and antiphase synchrony. Eye movements were then monitored with the partner giving instructions to identify a shape referent which included a pre-nominal scalar adjective (e.g., big cubic block). When the target contrast (a small cubic block) was in the shared ground and a competitor contrast was occluded for the partner, participants who used perspective differences could, in principle, identify the intended referent before the shape was named. We hypothesized that asynchronous and antiphase synchronous musical activities, which require self-other distinction, might have stronger effects on perspective-taking than synchronous activity. Children in the asynchrony and antiphase synchrony conditions, but not the synchrony condition, showed anticipatory looks at the target, demonstrating real-time use of the partner's perspective. Study 2 was conducted to determine if asynchrony and antiphase asynchrony resulted in perspective-taking that otherwise would not have been observed, or if synchronous coordination inhibited perspective-taking that would otherwise have occurred. We found no evidence for online perspective-taking in 4- to 6-year-old children without music manipulation. Therefore, playing instruments asynchronously or in alternation, but not synchronously, increases perspective-taking in children of this age, likely by training self-other distinction and control. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at https://youtu.be/TM9h_GpFlsA. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: This study is the first to show that rhythmic coordination, a form of non-linguistic interaction, can affect children's performance in a subsequent linguistic task. Eye-movement data revealed that children's perspective-taking in language processing was facilitated by prior asynchronous and antiphase synchronous musical interactions, but not by synchronous coordination. The results challenge the common "similar is better" view, suggesting that maintaining self-other distinction may benefit social interactions that involve representing individual differences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yingjia Wan
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Yipu Wei
- School of Chinese as a Second Language, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Baorui Xu
- School of Chinese as a Second Language, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Liqi Zhu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Michael K Tanenhaus
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, USA
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Goodman JR, Caines A, Foley RA. Shibboleth: An agent-based model of signalling mimicry. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0289333. [PMID: 37523380 PMCID: PMC10389733 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0289333] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2022] [Accepted: 07/17/2023] [Indexed: 08/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Mimicry is an essential strategy for exploiting competitors in competitive co-evolutionary relationships. Protection against mimicry may, furthermore, be a driving force in human linguistic diversity: the potential harm caused by failing to detect mimicked group-identity signals may select for high sensitivity to mimicry of honest group members. Here we describe the results of five agent-based models that simulate multi-generational interactions between two groups of individuals: original members of a group with an honest identity signal, and members of an outsider group who mimic that signal, aiming to pass as members of the in-group. The models correspond to the Biblical story of Shibboleth, where a tribe in conflict with another determines tribe affiliation by asking individuals to pronounce the word, 'Shibboleth.' In the story, failure to reproduce the word phonetically resulted in death. Here, we run five different versions of a 'Shibboleth' model: a first, simple version, which evaluates whether a composite variable of mimicry quality and detection quality is a superior predictor to the model's outcome than is cost of detection. The models thereafter evaluate variations on the simple model, incorporating group-level behaviours such as altruistic punishment. Our results suggest that group members' sensitivity to mimicry of the Shibboleth-signal is a better predictor of whether any signal of group identity goes into fixation in the overall population than is the cost of mimicry detection. Thus, the likelihood of being detected as a mimic may be more important than the costs imposed on mimics who are detected. This suggests that theoretical models in biology should place greater emphasis on the likelihood of detection, which does not explicitly entail costs, rather than on the costs to individuals who are detected. From a language learning perspective, the results suggest that admission to group membership through linguistic signals is powered by the ability to imitate and evade detection as an outsider by existing group members.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan R Goodman
- Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
- Darwin College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Andrew Caines
- ALTA Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Robert A Foley
- Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
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8
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Tong K, Chan YN, Cheng X, Cheon B, Ellefson M, Fauziana R, Feng S, Fischer N, Gulyás B, Hoo N, Hung D, Kalaivanan K, Langley C, Lee KM, Lee LL, Lee T, Melani I, Melia N, Pei JY, Raghani L, Sam YL, Seow P, Suckling J, Tan YF, Teo CL, Uchiyama R, Yap HS, Christopoulos G, Hendriks H, Chen A, Robbins T, Sahakian B, Kourtzi Z, Leong V. Study protocol: How does cognitive flexibility relate to other executive functions and learning in healthy young adults? PLoS One 2023; 18:e0286208. [PMID: 37471399 PMCID: PMC10358919 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0286208] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2023] [Accepted: 05/10/2023] [Indexed: 07/22/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Cognitive flexibility (CF) enables individuals to readily shift from one concept or mode of practice/thoughts to another in response to changes in the environment and feedback, making CF vital to optimise success in obtaining goals. However, how CF relates to other executive functions (e.g., working memory, response inhibition), mental abilities (e.g., creativity, literacy, numeracy, intelligence, structure learning), and social factors (e.g., multilingualism, tolerance of uncertainty, perceived social support, social decision-making) is less well understood. The current study aims to (1) establish the construct validity of CF in relation to other executive function skills and intelligence, and (2) elucidate specific relationships between CF, structure learning, creativity, career decision making and planning, and other life skills. METHODS This study will recruit up to 400 healthy Singaporean young adults (age 18-30) to complete a wide range of cognitive tasks and social questionnaires/tasks. The richness of the task/questionnaire battery and within-participant administration enables us to use computational modelling and structural equation modelling to examine connections between the latent constructs of interest. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT The current study is the first systematic investigation into the construct validity of CF and its interrelationship with other important cognitive skills such as learning and creativity, within an Asian context. The study will further explore the concept of CF as a non-unitary construct, a novel theoretical proposition in the field. The inclusion of a structure learning paradigm is intended to inform future development of a novel intervention paradigm to enhance CF. Finally, the results of the study will be useful for informing classroom pedagogy and the design of lifelong learning policies and curricula, as part of the wider remit of the Cambridge-NTU Centre for Lifelong Learning and Individualised Cognition (CLIC).
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Affiliation(s)
- Ke Tong
- Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Yuan Ni Chan
- Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Xiaoqin Cheng
- Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Bobby Cheon
- National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
| | | | | | | | | | - Balázs Gulyás
- Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Natalie Hoo
- Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
| | - David Hung
- National Institute of Education, Singapore, Singapore
| | | | | | - Kean Mun Lee
- Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Li Ling Lee
- Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Timothy Lee
- National Institute of Education, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Irene Melani
- Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
| | | | - Jia Ying Pei
- Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Lisha Raghani
- Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Yoke Loo Sam
- Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Peter Seow
- National Institute of Education, Singapore, Singapore
| | | | - Yan Fen Tan
- Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Chew Lee Teo
- National Institute of Education, Singapore, Singapore
| | | | - Hui Shan Yap
- Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
| | | | | | - Annabel Chen
- Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
| | | | | | - Zoe Kourtzi
- University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
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9
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Papadopoulos D. Zhuangzi and collaboration in animals: a critical conceptual analysis of shared intentionality. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1170358. [PMID: 37457070 PMCID: PMC10342205 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1170358] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2023] [Accepted: 06/12/2023] [Indexed: 07/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Shared intentionality is a specific form of shared agency where a group can be understood to have an intention. It has been conjectured that humans are better equipped for collaboration than other animals because humans but not other great apes share intentions. However, exporting shared intentionality from a debate about the ontology of mental state attributions like intentions to groups does not seamlessly lend itself to evolutionary science. To explore and de-center the implicit assumptions of Western conceptions of cooperation, I look at Zhuangzi's philosophy of (in)action. This philosophy treats the actions of individuals as always a form of co-action alongside other agencies to whom one must adapt. Thinking of collaboration as a product of skillful co-action, not shared intention, sidesteps asking about cooperation in "kinds" or levels. Instead, it directs attention to the know-how and behavioral flexibility needed to make our constant coordination adaptive.
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10
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Glass D, Yuill N. Moving Together: Social Motor Synchrony in Autistic Peer Partners Depends on Partner and Activity Type. J Autism Dev Disord 2023:10.1007/s10803-023-05917-8. [PMID: 37310543 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-023-05917-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 01/28/2023] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Some suggest autistic people display impaired Interpersonal Synchrony. However, partners of different neurotypes can struggle to connect and empathise with one another. We used Motion Energy Analysis to examine Social Motor Synchrony (SMS) in familiar partners of the same neurotype: pairs of autistic and of neurotypical children. Partners played two shared tablet activities, one to support collaboration by facilitating engagement and other-awareness (Connect), and one with no additional design features to facilitate collaboration (Colours). The neurotypical group showed similar SMS to the autistic group in Colours but lower SMS in Connect. The autistic group displayed similar levels of SMS in each activity. Autistic children can synchronise to a similar, or greater, degree than neurotypical children when the social context and type of task are considered.
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Affiliation(s)
- Devyn Glass
- University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9QJ, England, UK.
| | - Nicola Yuill
- University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9QJ, England, UK
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11
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Abstract
Characterizing non-human primate social complexity and its cognitive bases has proved challenging. Using principal component analyses, we show that primate social, ecological and reproductive behaviours condense into two components: socioecological complexity (including most social and ecological variables) and reproductive cooperation (comprising mainly a suite of behaviours associated with pairbonded monogamy). We contextualize these results using a meta-analysis of 44 published analyses of primate brain evolution. These studies yield two main consistent results: cognition, sociality and cooperative behaviours are associated with absolute brain volume, neocortex size and neocortex ratio, whereas diet composition and life history are consistently associated with relative brain size. We use a path analysis to evaluate the causal relationships among these variables, demonstrating that social group size is predicted by the neocortex, whereas ecological traits are predicted by the volume of brain structures other than the neocortex. That a range of social and technical behaviours covary, and are correlated with social group size and brain size, suggests that primate cognition has evolved along a continuum resulting in an increasingly flexible, domain-general capacity to solve a range of socioecological challenges culminating in a capacity for, and reliance on, innovation and social information use in the great apes and humans. This article is part of the theme issue 'Cognition, communication and social bonds in primates'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susanne Shultz
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
| | - Robin I M Dunbar
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
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12
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Abstract
Cognitive control, or executive function, is a key feature of human cognition, allowing individuals to plan, acquire new information, or adopt new strategies when the circumstances change. Yet it is unclear which factors promote the evolution of more sophisticated executive-function abilities such as those possessed by humans. Examining cognitive control in nonhuman primates, our closest relatives, can help to identify these evolutionary processes. Here, we developed a novel battery to experimentally measure multiple aspects of cognitive control in primates: temporal discounting, motor inhibition, short-term memory, reversal learning, novelty responses, and persistence. We tested lemur species with targeted, independent variation in both ecological and social features (ruffed lemurs, Coquerel's sifakas, ring-tailed lemurs, and mongoose lemurs; N = 39) and found that ecological rather than social characteristics best predicted patterns of cognitive control across these species. This highlights the importance of integrating cognitive data with species' natural history to understand the origins of complex cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesca De Petrillo
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan.,School of Psychology, Newcastle University.,Biosciences Institute, Newcastle University
| | | | | | - Alexandra G Rosati
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan.,Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan
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13
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Moll H, Ni Q, Stekeler-Weithofer P. Ontogenetic steps of understanding beliefs: From practical to theoretical. Philosophical Psychology 2022. [DOI: 10.1080/09515089.2022.2073211] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Henrike Moll
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Qianhui Ni
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States
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14
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Bard KA, Keller H, Ross KM, Hewlett B, Butler L, Boysen ST, Matsuzawa T. Joint Attention in Human and Chimpanzee Infants in Varied Socio-Ecological Contexts. Monogr Soc Res Child Dev 2022; 86:7-217. [PMID: 35355281 DOI: 10.1111/mono.12435] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Joint attention (JA) is an early manifestation of social cognition, commonly described as interactions in which an infant looks or gestures to an adult female to share attention about an object, within a positive emotional atmosphere. We label this description the JA phenotype. We argue that characterizing JA in this way reflects unexamined assumptions which are, in part, due to past developmental researchers' primary focus on western, middle-class infants and families. We describe a range of cultural variations in caregiving practices, socialization goals, and parenting ethnotheories as an essential initial step in viewing joint attention within inclusive and contextualized perspectives. We begin the process of conducting a decolonized study of JA by considering the core construct of joint attention (i.e., triadic connectedness) and adopting culturally inclusive definitions (labeled joint engagement [JE]). Our JE definitions allow for attention and engagement to be expressed in visual and tactile modalities (e.g., for infants experiencing distal or proximal caregiving), with various social partners (e.g., peers, older siblings, mothers), with a range of shared topics (e.g., representing diverse socialization goals, and socio-ecologies with and without toys), and with a range of emotional tone (e.g., for infants living in cultures valuing calmness and low arousal, and those valuing exuberance). Our definition of JE includes initiations from either partner (to include priorities for adult-led or child-led interactions). Our next foundational step is making an ecological commitment to naturalistic observations (Dahl, 2017, Child Dev Perspect, 11(2), 79-84): We measure JE while infants interact within their own physical and social ecologies. This commitment allows us to describe JE as it occurs in everyday contexts, without constraints imposed by researchers. Next, we sample multiple groups of infants drawn from diverse socio-ecological settings. Moreover, we include diverse samples of chimpanzee infants to compare with diverse samples of human infants, to investigate the extent to which JE is unique to humans, and to document diversity both within and between species. We sampled human infants living in three diverse settings. U.K. infants (n = 8) were from western, middle-class families living near universities in the south of England. Nso infants (n = 12) were from communities of subsistence farmers in Cameroon, Africa. Aka infants (n = 10) were from foraging communities in the tropical rain forests of Central African Republic, Africa. We coded behavioral details of JE from videotaped observations (taken between 2004 and 2010). JE occurred in the majority of coded intervals (Mdn = 68%), supporting a conclusion that JE is normative for human infants. The JA phenotype, in contrast, was infrequent, and significantly more common in the U.K. (Mdn = 10%) than the other groups (Mdn < 3%). We found significant within-species diversity in JE phenotypes (i.e., configurations of predominant forms of JE characteristics). We conclude that triadic connectedness is very common in human infants, but there is significant contextualization of behavioral forms of JE. We also studied chimpanzee infants living in diverse socio-ecologies. The PRI/Zoo chimpanzee infants (n = 7) were from captive, stable groups of mixed ages and sexes, and included 4 infants from the Chester Zoo, U.K. and 3 from the Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Japan. The Gombe chimpanzee infants (n = 12) were living in a dynamically changing, wild community in the Gombe National Park, Tanzania, Africa. Additionally, we include two Home chimpanzee infants who were reared from birth by a female scientist, in the combined U.S., middle-class contexts of home and university cognition laboratory. JE was coded from videotaped observations (taken between 1993 and 2006). JE occurred during the majority of coded intervals (Mdn = 64%), consistent with the position that JE is normative for chimpanzee infants. The JA phenotype, in contrast, was rare, but more commonly observed in the two Home chimpanzee infants (in 8% and 2% of intervals) than in other chimpanzee groups (Mdns = 0%). We found within-species diversity in the configurations comprising the JE phenotypes. We conclude that triadic connectedness is very common in chimpanzee infants, but behavioral forms of joint engagement are contextualized. We compared JE across species, and found no species-uniqueness in behavioral forms, JE characteristics, or JE phenotypes. Both human and chimpanzee infants develop contextualized social cognition. Within-species diversity is embraced when triadic connectedness is described with culturally inclusive definitions. In contrast, restricting definitions to the JA phenotype privileges a behavioral form most valued in western, middle-class socio-ecologies, irrespective of whether the interactions involve human or chimpanzee infants. Our study presents a model for how to decolonize an important topic in developmental psychology. Decolonization is accomplished by defining the phenomenon inclusively, embracing diversity in sampling, challenging claims of human-uniqueness, and having an ecological commitment to observe infant social cognition as it occurs within everyday socio-ecological contexts. It is essential that evolutionary and developmental theories of social cognition are re-built on more inclusive and decolonized empirical foundations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kim A Bard
- Department of Psychology, University of Portsmouth
| | - Heidi Keller
- Department of Human Sciences, Osnabrück University
| | | | - Barry Hewlett
- Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Vancouver
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Johnson-Ulrich L, Johnson-Ulrich Z, Holekamp KE. Natural conditions and adaptive functions of problem-solving in the Carnivora. Curr Opin Behav Sci 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2022.101111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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16
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Lingam M. The Possible Role of Body Temperature in Modulating Brain and Body Sizes in Hominin Evolution. Front Psychol 2022; 12:774683. [PMID: 35222146 PMCID: PMC8866639 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.774683] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2021] [Accepted: 12/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Many models have posited that the concomitant evolution of large brains and body sizes in hominins was constrained by metabolic costs. In such studies, the impact of body temperature has arguably not been sufficiently addressed despite the well-established fact that the rates of most physiological processes are manifestly temperature-dependent. Hence, the potential role of body temperature in regulating the number of neurons and body size is investigated by means of a heuristic quantitative model. It is suggested that modest deviations in body temperature (i.e., by a couple of degrees Celsius) might allow for substantive changes in brain and body parameters. In particular, a higher body temperature may prove amenable to an increased number of neurons, a higher brain-to-body mass ratio and fewer hours expended on feeding activities, while the converse could apply when the temperature is lowered. Future studies should, therefore, endeavor to explore and incorporate the effects of body temperature in metabolic theories of hominin evolution, while also integrating other factors such as foraging efficiency, diet, and fire control in tandem.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manasvi Lingam
- Department of Aerospace, Physics and Space Sciences, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL, United States
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Nakawake Y, Kobayashi Y. Negative observational learning might play a limited role in the cultural evolution of technology. Sci Rep 2022; 12:970. [PMID: 35046491 PMCID: PMC8770688 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-05031-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/06/2021] [Accepted: 01/03/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Theoretical and empirical studies of the cultural evolution in technology have often focused on positive observational learning, i.e., copying a successful individual. However, negative observational learning, i.e., avoiding negative or bad exemplar behavior, is ubiquitous in humans and other animals. In this paper, we experimentally investigate whether observing negative examples can assist in tool making in the virtual arrowhead task, which has been widely applied to test the theory of cultural evolution in the technological domain. We set three conditions that differ in the kinds of social learning available to participants: (1) positive observational learning, (2) negative observational learning, and (3) pure asocial learning. The results of the positive observational and pure asocial learning conditions replicated previous studies; i.e., participants in the positive observational learning condition outperformed those in the asocial learning condition. In contrast, opportunities to observe negative examples did not increase the performance compared to pure asocial learning. Computer simulations in the same setting showed that the presence of negative exemplars is in theory beneficial to participants, providing additional pieces of information on the relationship between arrowhead designs and their performance scores. These findings together suggest that negative observational learning might play only a limited role in the cultural evolution of technologies possibly due to a cognitive bias in humans toward copying.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yo Nakawake
- School of Economics and Management, Kochi University of Technology, Kochi, 780-8515, Japan.
- School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX2 6PE, UK.
| | - Yutaka Kobayashi
- School of Economics and Management, Kochi University of Technology, Kochi, 780-8515, Japan
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Abstract
Human expression is open-ended, versatile, and diverse, ranging from ordinary language use to painting, from exaggerated displays of affection to micro-movements that aid coordination. Here we present and defend the claim that this expressive diversity is united by an interrelated suite of cognitive capacities, the evolved functions of which are the expression and recognition of informative intentions. We describe how evolutionary dynamics normally leash communication to narrow domains of statistical mutual benefit, and how expression is unleashed in humans. The relevant cognitive capacities are cognitive adaptations to living in a partner choice social ecology; and they are, correspondingly, part of the ordinarily developing human cognitive phenotype, emerging early and reliably in ontogeny. In other words, we identify distinctive features of our species' social ecology to explain how and why humans, and only humans, evolved the cognitive capacities that, in turn, lead to massive diversity and open-endedness in means and modes of expression. Language use is but one of these modes of expression, albeit one of manifestly high importance. We make cross-species comparisons, describe how the relevant cognitive capacities can evolve in a gradual manner, and survey how unleashed expression facilitates not only language use, but also novel behaviour in many other domains too, focusing on the examples of joint action, teaching, punishment, and art, all of which are ubiquitous in human societies but relatively rare in other species. Much of this diversity derives from graded aspects of human expression, which can be used to satisfy informative intentions in creative and new ways. We aim to help reorient cognitive pragmatics, as a phenomenon that is not a supplement to linguistic communication and on the periphery of language science, but rather the foundation of the many of the most distinctive features of human behaviour, society, and culture.
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Horschler DJ, Bray EE, Gnanadesikan GE, Byrne M, Levy KM, Kennedy BS, MacLean EL. Dogs re-engage human partners when joint social play is interrupted: a behavioural signature of shared intentionality? Anim Behav 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2021.11.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
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20
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Kosilo M, Costa M, Nuttall HE, Ferreira H, Scott S, Menéres S, Pestana J, Jerónimo R, Prata D. The neural basis of authenticity recognition in laughter and crying. Sci Rep 2021; 11:23750. [PMID: 34887461 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-03131-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2021] [Accepted: 11/22/2021] [Indexed: 01/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Deciding whether others' emotions are genuine is essential for successful communication and social relationships. While previous fMRI studies suggested that differentiation between authentic and acted emotional expressions involves higher-order brain areas, the time course of authenticity discrimination is still unknown. To address this gap, we tested the impact of authenticity discrimination on event-related potentials (ERPs) related to emotion, motivational salience, and higher-order cognitive processing (N100, P200 and late positive complex, the LPC), using vocalised non-verbal expressions of sadness (crying) and happiness (laughter) in a 32-participant, within-subject study. Using a repeated measures 2-factor (authenticity, emotion) ANOVA, we show that N100's amplitude was larger in response to authentic than acted vocalisations, particularly in cries, while P200's was larger in response to acted vocalisations, particularly in laughs. We suggest these results point to two different mechanisms: (1) a larger N100 in response to authentic vocalisations is consistent with its link to emotional content and arousal (putatively larger amplitude for genuine emotional expressions); (2) a larger P200 in response to acted ones is in line with evidence relating it to motivational salience (putatively larger for ambiguous emotional expressions). Complementarily, a significant main effect of emotion was found on P200 and LPC amplitudes, in that the two were larger for laughs than cries, regardless of authenticity. Overall, we provide the first electroencephalographic examination of authenticity discrimination and propose that authenticity processing of others' vocalisations is initiated early, along that of their emotional content or category, attesting for its evolutionary relevance for trust and bond formation.
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Osiurak F, Lasserre S, Arbanti J, Brogniart J, Bluet A, Navarro J, Reynaud E. Technical reasoning is important for cumulative technological culture. Nat Hum Behav 2021; 5:1643-1651. [PMID: 34239080 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-021-01159-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2020] [Accepted: 05/17/2021] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Human technology has evolved in an unparalleled way, allowing us to expand across the globe. One fascinating question is, how do we understand the cognitive origins of this phenomenon, which is known as cumulative technological culture (CTC)? The dominant view posits that CTC results from our unique ability to learn from each other. The cultural niche hypothesis even minimizes the involvement of non-social cognitive skills in the emergence of CTC, claiming that technologies can be optimized without us understanding how they work, but simply through the retention of small improvements over generations. Here we conduct a partial replication of the experimental study of Derex et al. (Nature Human Behaviour, 2019) and show that the improvement of a physical system over generations is accompanied by an increased understanding of it. These findings indicate that technical-reasoning skills (non-social cognitive skills) are important in the acquisition, understanding and improvement of technical content-that is, specific to the technological form of cumulative culture-thereby making social learning a salient source of technical inspiration.
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Affiliation(s)
- François Osiurak
- Laboratoire d'Étude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, Université de Lyon, Lyon, France. .,Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France.
| | - Salomé Lasserre
- Laboratoire d'Étude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, Université de Lyon, Lyon, France
| | - Julie Arbanti
- Laboratoire d'Étude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, Université de Lyon, Lyon, France
| | - Joël Brogniart
- Laboratoire d'Étude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, Université de Lyon, Lyon, France
| | - Alexandre Bluet
- Laboratoire d'Étude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, Université de Lyon, Lyon, France
| | - Jordan Navarro
- Laboratoire d'Étude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, Université de Lyon, Lyon, France.,Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France
| | - Emanuelle Reynaud
- Laboratoire d'Étude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, Université de Lyon, Lyon, France
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Affiliation(s)
- Manon K. Schweinfurth
- School of Psychology and Neuroscience University of St Andrews St Andrews Scotland
- Department of Behavioural Ecology University of Bern Hinterkappelen Switzerland
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23
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Ribeiro Eulalio Cabral G, Rodrigues Sampaio L, Ribeiro Eulalio Cabral G, Bastos Santana R. Slingshot Challenge and Star Mines: Two digital games as a prisoner's dilemma to assess cooperation in children. Behav Res Methods 2021. [PMID: 34327675 DOI: 10.3758/s13428-021-01661-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
The prisoner's dilemma (PD) has been widely adopted by researchers to investigate cooperation among adults and children. However, studies using the PD with children are not as extensive as experiments with adults. The main aim of this work was to introduce and show the feasibility and validity of two digital games with the structural features of a PD (Slingshot Challenge [SC] and Star Mines [SM]) to investigate children's cooperative behavior. In two experiments, 162 children aged 6 to 12 years played SC and SM in different conditions. It was observed that children understood the dynamics of a PD, and were highly motivated to play SC and SM. We found that participants were more cooperative playing SM than SC and cooperated conditionally as well. We also found that sex and first-trial cooperation were associated with higher levels of cooperation. The results support the utility of SC and SM as feasible, reliable, and valid instruments for assessing cooperative behavior in childhood.
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Abstract
Laughter and smiles are often, but not always, associated with positive affect. These expressions of humans help to promote social relationships as well as the development of cognitive and socio-emotional skills and they may have a positive impact on health and well-being, hereby covering a selection of fitness-relevant benefits. Both laughter and smiles of positive affect also occur early in human development and across cultures, suggesting deep roots in human biology. The present work provides an evolutionary reconstruction of the evolution of human laughter and smiles of positive affect in form and function, based on the principle of maximum parsimony. According to the Complexity and Continuity Hypothesis, human laughter and smiles of positive affect must have evolved within the context of play from ancestral species. Furthermore, ancestral ape laughter and their open-mouth faces must already have been complex in form and function and changed over time via categorically different phylogenetic pathways to become characteristic, effective, and pervasive behaviors of everyday social interactions in humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marina Davila-Ross
- Psychology Department, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, United Kingdom
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Ye NN, Heyman GD, Ding XP. Linking young children's teaching to their reasoning of mental states: Evidence from Singapore. J Exp Child Psychol 2021; 209:105175. [PMID: 34000589 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105175] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2020] [Revised: 03/26/2021] [Accepted: 04/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
To fully participate in the human information-sharing ecosystem that allows for efficient knowledge dissemination and creation, children need to be able to teach others effectively. The current research is the first to investigate links between children's teaching abilities and their developing theory of mind abilities in a non-Western sample. In a sample of 4- to 6-year-old Singaporean children (N = 49), we examined relations between specific components of theory of mind abilities and teaching ability on a social cognitive task. We found that both false belief understanding and the ability to make mental state inferences in a teaching context were associated with effective teaching even after controlling for age and language ability. These findings provide a nuanced picture of the links between mental state reasoning and teaching ability. More broadly, they provide evidence that these links extend beyond Western cultures and generalize to social-cognitive teaching contexts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nina Ni Ye
- Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117570, Singapore
| | - Gail D Heyman
- Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
| | - Xiao Pan Ding
- Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117570, Singapore.
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Clark H, Leavens DA. The performance of domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) on two versions of the object choice task. Anim Cogn 2021; 24:1087-1098. [PMID: 33687599 PMCID: PMC8360901 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-021-01500-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/19/2020] [Revised: 01/30/2021] [Accepted: 02/26/2021] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
Object choice task (OCT) studies are widely used to assess the phylogenetic and ontogenetic distribution of the understanding of communicative cues, with this understanding serving as a proxy for the discernment of communicative intentions. Recent reviews have found systematic procedural and methodological differences in studies which compare performances across species on the OCT. One such difference concerns the spatial configuration of the test set-up, specifically the distances between the two containers (inter-object distance) and the subject-experimenter distance. Here, we tested dogs on two versions of the task: a central version in which the containers were in the subjects' direct line of vision, and a peripheral version in which the position of the containers was distal to the subject. Half of the subjects were tested with a barrier in the testing environment (as nonhuman primates are tested) and the other half without. We found that dogs tested with a barrier performed significantly better in the central version and were more likely to fail to make a choice in the peripheral version. Dogs tested without a barrier showed comparable performance on the two versions. We thus failed to find support for the distraction hypothesis in dogs. We discuss potential explanations for this, highlighting how methodological differences in the presentation of the OCT can influence outcomes in studies using this paradigm.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hannah Clark
- School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Falmer, BN1 9QH, East Sussex, UK
| | - David A Leavens
- School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Falmer, BN1 9QH, East Sussex, UK.
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27
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Inoue N, Morita J. A behavioral task for exploring dynamics of communication system in dilemma situations. Artif Life Robotics 2021; 26:329-37. [DOI: 10.1007/s10015-021-00680-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
AbstractThis research proposes a behavioral task to demonstrate the process of evolution of human communication systems based on the Machiavellian intelligence hypothesis, claiming that human sophisticated social intelligence such as linguistic ability has been formed through behaviors that maximize self-interest in a competitive social situation. The proposed task was designed as a dilemma game involving messaging to establish Machiavellian communication. The game was developed based on experimental semiotics, a method that generates novel artificial language and examines language functions. Through the proposed task, pairs of participants attach meanings to arbitral graphic symbols forming novel communication systems. In case studies using this task, participants modified or ambiguated the communication system by means of a dilemma between sharing and monopolizing rewards. The result suggests that the proposed game causes ambiguation of the communication system that functions equivocally.
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28
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Martin J, Koski S, Bugnyar T, Jaeggi A, Massen J. Prosociality, social tolerance and partner choice facilitate mutually beneficial cooperation in common marmosets, Callithrix jacchus. Anim Behav 2021; 173:115-36. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2020.12.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
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Abstract
What is the key to successful interaction? Is it sufficient to represent a common goal, or does the way our partner achieves that goal count as well? How do we react when our partner misbehaves? We used a turn-taking music-like task requiring participants to play sequences of notes together with a partner, and we investigated how people adapt to a partner's error that violates their expectations. Errors consisted of either playing a wrong note of a sequence that the agents were playing together (thus preventing the achievement of the joint goal) or playing the expected note with an unexpected action. In both cases, we found post-error slowing and inaccuracy suggesting the participants' implicit tendency to correct the partner's error and produce the action that the partner should have done. We argue that these "joint" monitoring processes depend on the motor predictions made within a (dyadic) motor plan and may represent a basic mechanism for mutual support in motor interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucia Maria Sacheli
- Department of Psychology and Milan Center for Neuroscience (NeuroMi), University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126, Milano, Italy.
- IRCCS Istituto Ortopedico Galeazzi, Milan, Italy.
| | - Margherita Adelaide Musco
- Department of Psychology and Milan Center for Neuroscience (NeuroMi), University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126, Milano, Italy
| | - Elisa Zazzera
- Department of Psychology and Milan Center for Neuroscience (NeuroMi), University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126, Milano, Italy
| | - Eraldo Paulesu
- Department of Psychology and Milan Center for Neuroscience (NeuroMi), University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126, Milano, Italy
- IRCCS Istituto Ortopedico Galeazzi, Milan, Italy
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Osiurak F, Cretel C, Duhau-Marmon N, Fournier I, Marignier L, De Oliveira E, Navarro J, Reynaud E. The Pedagogue, the Engineer, and the Friend : From Whom Do We Learn? Hum Nat 2020; 31:462-482. [PMID: 33420606 DOI: 10.1007/s12110-020-09379-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/06/2020] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Humans can follow different social learning strategies, sometimes oriented toward the models' characteristics (i.e., who-strategies). The goal of the present study was to explore which who-strategy is preferentially followed in the technological context based on the models' psychological characteristics. We identified three potential who-strategies: Copy the pedagogue (a model with high theory-of-mind skills), copy the engineer (a model with high technical-reasoning skills), and copy the friend (a model with high level of prosocialness). We developed a closed-group micro-society paradigm in which participants had to build the highest possible towers. Participants began with an individual building phase. Then, they were gathered to discuss the best solutions to increase tower height. After this discussion phase, they had to make a new building attempt, followed by another discussion phase, and so forth for a total of six building phases and five discussion rounds. This methodology allowed us to create an attraction score for each participant (the more an individual was copied in a group, the greater the attraction score). We also assessed participants' theory-of-mind skills, technical-reasoning skills, and prosocialness to predict participants' attraction scores based on these measures. Results show that we learn from engineers (high technical-reasoning skills) because they are the most successful. Their attraction power is not immediate, but after they have been identified as attractors, their technique is copied irrespective of their pedagogy (theory-of-mind skills) or friendliness (prosocialness). These findings open avenues for the study of the cognitive bases of human technological culture.
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Affiliation(s)
- François Osiurak
- Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, Université de Lyon, 5, avenue Pierre Mendès-France, 69676, Bron Cedex, France.
- Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France.
| | - Caroline Cretel
- Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, Université de Lyon, 5, avenue Pierre Mendès-France, 69676, Bron Cedex, France
| | - Naomi Duhau-Marmon
- Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, Université de Lyon, 5, avenue Pierre Mendès-France, 69676, Bron Cedex, France
| | - Isabelle Fournier
- Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, Université de Lyon, 5, avenue Pierre Mendès-France, 69676, Bron Cedex, France
| | - Lucie Marignier
- Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, Université de Lyon, 5, avenue Pierre Mendès-France, 69676, Bron Cedex, France
| | - Emmanuel De Oliveira
- Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, Université de Lyon, 5, avenue Pierre Mendès-France, 69676, Bron Cedex, France
| | - Jordan Navarro
- Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, Université de Lyon, 5, avenue Pierre Mendès-France, 69676, Bron Cedex, France
- Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France
| | - Emanuelle Reynaud
- Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, Université de Lyon, 5, avenue Pierre Mendès-France, 69676, Bron Cedex, France
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Choi J, Choi N. Young Children’s Reading Responses and Story Comprehension in the Buddy Reading of Wordless Picture Books: Comparing Cooperation and Competition in Reading. Korean J Child Stud 2020; 41:31-44. [DOI: 10.5723/kjcs.2020.41.5.31] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
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Abstract
In this paper, we turn to languaging, defined here as activity in which wordings play a part. On such a view, while activity is paramount, people also orient to acts of vocalization as wordings. These physical wordings can be used as tools that shape attending, with recourse to neither mental representations nor symbols that store and transmit information. The view is consistent with macroevolutionary continuity and will be used to challenge appeal to a major evolutionary transition to 'language'. On the languaging view, like many modern social primates, hominins have long undertaken encultured activities. Infants, human and nonhuman, act epistemically and, by so doing, align skills with objects to practice. They develop a 'stance' to pragmatic, goal-directed action. In human ontogenesis, we argue, both epistemic action and the stance-taking are extended by vocalizing. Caregiver-infant coordination enables vocalizing to be integrated with acting, attending, perceiving and managing one's attention. Infants also self-entrain vocalizing through 'babble'. Once the developmental threads unite, social reaching (Bates, 1976) favors a special stance to articulatory gestures (one that allows wordings to be made and heard). Just as in orienting to cultural tools, a child grasps a community's ways-with-wordings. The latter often express abstract relations which we can illustrate with modern non-literate use of reciprocal expressions. In Australian and Pacific languages, reciprocals sustain coordinating that, for speakers, is neither symbolic nor arbitrary. Further, cross-linguistic comparison shows the same 'patchy distribution' of reciprocals that characterizes primate tool use. Of course, we do not deny that, in many language games, people can undertake activity that makes symbolic use of wordings. In modern literate societies, abilities based on social reaching are further extended into skills that use notational practices (e.g. letters, numbers, graphics). This opens up whole new fields or domains of languaging. Yet, ostensive use of symbols is plainly a cultural invention - not a direct legacy of hominin evolution.
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Ashton BJ, Kennedy P, Radford AN. Interactions with conspecific outsiders as drivers of cognitive evolution. Nat Commun 2020; 11:4937. [PMID: 33024110 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18780-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/10/2020] [Accepted: 09/14/2020] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
The social intelligence hypothesis (SIH) posits that within-group interactions drive cognitive evolution, but it has received equivocal support. We argue the SIH overlooks a major component of social life: interactions with conspecific outsiders. Competition for vital resources means conspecific outsiders present myriad threats and opportunities in all animal taxa across the social spectrum (from individuals to groups). We detail cognitive challenges generated by conspecific outsiders, arguing these select for ‘Napoleonic’ intelligence; explain potential influences on the SIH; and highlight important considerations when empirically testing these ideas. Including interactions with conspecific outsiders may substantially improve our understanding of cognitive evolution. The social intelligence hypothesis predicts that social organisms tend to be more intelligent because within-group interactions drive cognitive evolution. Here, authors propose that conspecific outsiders can be just as important in selecting for sophisticated cognitive adaptations.
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Kyriakopoulou N, Vosniadou S. Theory of Mind, Personal Epistemology, and Science Learning: Exploring Common Conceptual Components. Front Psychol 2020; 11:1140. [PMID: 32595559 PMCID: PMC7303512 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01140] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2020] [Accepted: 05/04/2020] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
We investigated the hypothesis that theory of mind (ToM) and epistemological understanding promote the aspect of science learning that concerns the ability to understand that there can be more than one representation of the same phenomenon in the physical world. Sixty-three students ranging in age from 10 to 12 years were administered two false-belief ToM tasks, an epistemological understanding task that investigated beliefs about the nature of science and a science learning task. The science learning task required distinguishing and reflecting upon phenomenal and scientific depictions of phenomena in observational astronomy. A three-stage hierarchical multiple regression showed that ToM was a significant predictor of performance in the astronomy task, supporting the hypothesis of a common underlying conceptual component. The results also showed that performance in the personal epistemology–nature of science task was a significant predictor of performance in the astronomy task, even when ToM and age were taken into consideration. The results indicate that both ToM and epistemological understanding promote the ability to construct and reflect on phenomenal and scientific representations of the same situation in the physical world and have important implications for science education.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natassa Kyriakopoulou
- Department of Early Childhood Education, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - Stella Vosniadou
- College of Education, Psychology and Social Work, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia
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Grossmann I, Weststrate NM, Ardelt M, Brienza JP, Dong M, Ferrari M, Fournier MA, Hu CS, Nusbaum HC, Vervaeke J. The Science of Wisdom in a Polarized World: Knowns and Unknowns. Psychological Inquiry 2020. [DOI: 10.1080/1047840x.2020.1750917] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/20/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Igor Grossmann
- Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada
| | - Nic M. Weststrate
- Department of Educational Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
| | - Monika Ardelt
- Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
| | - Justin P. Brienza
- UQ Business School, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
| | - Mengxi Dong
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, Canada
| | - Michel Ferrari
- Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
| | - Marc A. Fournier
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, Canada
| | - Chao S. Hu
- Art Therapy Psychological Research Centre, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Howard C. Nusbaum
- Department of Psychology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
| | - John Vervaeke
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
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Gnanadesikan GE, Hare B, Snyder-Mackler N, MacLean EL. Estimating the heritability of cognitive traits across dog breeds reveals highly heritable inhibitory control and communication factors. Anim Cogn 2020; 23:953-64. [PMID: 32524290 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-020-01400-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2020] [Revised: 05/14/2020] [Accepted: 05/26/2020] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
Trait heritability is necessary for evolution by both natural and artificial selection, yet we know little about the heritability of cognitive traits. Domestic dogs are a valuable study system for questions regarding the evolution of phenotypic diversity due to their extraordinary intraspecific variation. While previous studies have investigated morphological and behavioral variation across dog breeds, few studies have systematically assessed breed differences in cognition. We integrated data from Dognition.com-a citizen science project on dog cognition-with breed-averaged genetic data from published sources to estimate the among-breed heritability of cognitive traits using mixed models. The resulting dataset included 11 cognitive measures for 1508 adult dogs across 36 breeds. A factor analysis yielded four factors interpreted as reflecting inhibitory control, communication, memory, and physical reasoning. Narrow-sense among-breed heritability estimates-reflecting the proportion of cognitive variance attributable to additive genetic variation-revealed that scores on the inhibitory control and communication factors were highly heritable (inhibitory control: h2 = 0.70; communication: h2 = 0.39), while memory and physical reasoning were less heritable (memory: h2 = 0.17; physical reasoning: h2 = 0.21). Although the heritability of inhibitory control is partially explained by body weight, controlling for breed-average weight still yields a high heritability estimate (h2 = 0.50), while other factors are minimally affected. Our results indicate that cognitive phenotypes in dogs covary with breed relatedness and suggest that cognitive traits have strong potential to undergo selection. The highest heritabilities were observed for inhibitory control and communication, both of which are hypothesized to have been altered by domestication.
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Chirkov V. The sociocultural movement in psychology, the role of theories in sociocultural inquiries, and the theory of sociocultural models. Asian J Soc Psychol 2020. [DOI: 10.1111/ajsp.12409] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Valery Chirkov
- University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon Saskatchewan Canada
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Markov AV, Markov MA. Runaway brain-culture coevolution as a reason for larger brains: Exploring the "cultural drive" hypothesis by computer modeling. Ecol Evol 2020; 10:6059-6077. [PMID: 32607213 PMCID: PMC7319167 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.6350] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2020] [Revised: 04/01/2020] [Accepted: 04/20/2020] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Scale and tempo of brain expansion in the course of human evolution implies that this process was driven by a positive feedback. The "cultural drive" hypothesis suggests a possible mechanism for the runaway brain-culture coevolution wherein high-fidelity social learning results in accumulation of cultural traditions which, in turn, promote selection for still more efficient social learning. Here we explore this evolutionary mechanism by means of computer modeling. Simulations confirm its plausibility in a social species in a socio-ecological situation that makes the sporadic invention of new beneficial and cognitively demanding behaviors possible. The chances for the runaway brain-culture coevolution increase when some of the culturally transmitted behaviors are individually beneficial while the others are group-beneficial. In this case, "cultural drive" is possible under varying levels of between-group competition and migration. Modeling implies that brain expansion can receive additional boost if the evolving mechanisms of social learning are costly in terms of brain expansion (e.g., rely on complex neuronal circuits) and tolerant to the complexity of information transferred, that is, make it possible to transfer complex skills and concepts easily. Human language presumably fits this description. Modeling also confirms that the runaway brain-culture coevolution can be accelerated by additional positive feedback loops via population growth and life span extension, and that between-group competition and cultural group selection can facilitate the propagation of group-beneficial behaviors and remove maladaptive cultural traditions from the population's culture, which individual selection is unable to do.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander V. Markov
- Faculty of BiologyMoscow State UniversityMoscowRussia
- Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of SciencesMoscowRussia
| | - Mikhail A. Markov
- Faculty of BiologyMoscow State UniversityMoscowRussia
- Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of SciencesMoscowRussia
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Vasil J, Badcock PB, Constant A, Friston K, Ramstead MJD. A World Unto Itself: Human Communication as Active Inference. Front Psychol 2020; 11:417. [PMID: 32269536 PMCID: PMC7109408 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00417] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/24/2019] [Accepted: 02/24/2020] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent theoretical work in developmental psychology suggests that humans are predisposed to align their mental states with those of other individuals. One way this manifests is in cooperative communication; that is, intentional communication aimed at aligning individuals' mental states with respect to events in their shared environment. This idea has received strong empirical support. The purpose of this paper is to extend this account by proposing an integrative model of the biobehavioral dynamics of cooperative communication. Our formulation is based on active inference. Active inference suggests that action-perception cycles operate to minimize uncertainty and optimize an individual's internal model of the world. We propose that humans are characterized by an evolved adaptive prior belief that their mental states are aligned with, or similar to, those of conspecifics (i.e., that 'we are the same sort of creature, inhabiting the same sort of niche'). The use of cooperative communication emerges as the principal means to gather evidence for this belief, allowing for the development of a shared narrative that is used to disambiguate interactants' (hidden and inferred) mental states. Thus, by using cooperative communication, individuals effectively attune to a hermeneutic niche composed, in part, of others' mental states; and, reciprocally, attune the niche to their own ends via epistemic niche construction. This means that niche construction enables features of the niche to encode precise, reliable cues about the deontic or shared value of certain action policies (e.g., the utility of using communicative constructions to disambiguate mental states, given expectations about shared prior beliefs). In turn, the alignment of mental states (prior beliefs) enables the emergence of a novel, contextualizing scale of cultural dynamics that encompasses the actions and mental states of the ensemble of interactants and their shared environment. The dynamics of this contextualizing layer of cultural organization feedback, across scales, to constrain the variability of the prior expectations of the individuals who constitute it. Our theory additionally builds upon the active inference literature by introducing a new set of neurobiologically plausible computational hypotheses for cooperative communication. We conclude with directions for future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jared Vasil
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States
| | - Paul B. Badcock
- Centre for Youth Mental Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
- Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
- Orygen, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - Axel Constant
- Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia
- Culture, Mind, and Brain Program, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Karl Friston
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Maxwell J. D. Ramstead
- Culture, Mind, and Brain Program, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, United Kingdom
- Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
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41
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Wang Y, Park Y, Itakura S, Henderson AME, Kanda T, Furuhata N, Ishiguro H. Infants' perceptions of cooperation between a human and robot. Inf Child Dev 2020. [DOI: 10.1002/icd.2161] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Ying Wang
- Department of Psychology, Graduate School of LettersKyoto University Kyoto Japan
| | - Yun‐Hee Park
- Department of Psychology, Graduate School of LettersKyoto University Kyoto Japan
| | - Shoji Itakura
- Department of Psychology, Graduate School of LettersKyoto University Kyoto Japan
- Center for Baby ScienceDoshisha University Kyoto Japan
| | | | - Takayuki Kanda
- Intelligent Robotics and Communication LaboratoryAdvanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR) Kyoto Japan
- Department of Social InformaticsKyoto University Kyoto Japan
| | - Naoki Furuhata
- Department of Psychology, Graduate School of LettersKyoto University Kyoto Japan
| | - Hiroshi Ishiguro
- Department of System Innovation, Graduate School of Engineering ScienceOsaka University Osaka Japan
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42
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Roberts AI, Roberts SGB. Communicative roots of complex sociality and cognition. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2020; 95:51-73. [PMID: 31608566 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12553] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/08/2019] [Revised: 08/14/2019] [Accepted: 09/03/2019] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
Abstract
Mammals living in more complex social groups typically have large brains for their body size and many researchers have proposed that the primary driver of the increase in brain size through primate and hominin evolution was the selection pressures associated with sociality. Many mammals, and especially primates, use flexible signals that show a high degree of voluntary control and these signals may play an important role in forming and maintaining social relationships between group members. However, the specific role that cognitive skills play in this complex communication, and how in turn this relates to sociality, is still unclear. The hypothesis for the communicative roots of complex sociality and cognition posits that cognitive demands behind the communication needed to form and maintain bonded social relationships in complex social settings drives the link between brain size and sociality. We review the evidence in support of this hypothesis and why key features of cognitively complex communication such as intentionality and referentiality should be more effective in forming and maintaining bonded relationships as compared with less cognitively complex communication. Exploring the link between cognition, communication and sociality provides insights into how increasing flexibility in communication can facilitate the emergence of social systems characterised by bonded social relationships, such as those found in non-human primates and humans. To move the field forward and carry out both within- and among-species comparisons, we advocate the use of social network analysis, which provides a novel way to describe and compare social structure. Using this approach can lead to a new, systematic way of examining social and communicative complexity across species, something that is lacking in current comparative studies of social structure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna I Roberts
- Department of Psychology, University of Chester, Chester, CH1 4BJ, UK
| | - Sam G B Roberts
- School of Natural Sciences and Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, L3 3AF, UK
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Abstract
For almost four decades, cooperation has been studied through the lens of the prisoner’s dilemma game, with cooperation modelled as the play of a specific strategy. However, an alternative approach to cooperative behavior has recently been proposed. Known as collaboration, the new approach considers mutualistic strategic choice and can be applied to any game. Here, we bring these approaches together and study the effect of collaboration on cooperative dynamics in the standard prisoner’s dilemma setting. It turns out that, from a baseline of zero cooperation in the absence of collaboration, even relatively rare opportunities to collaborate can support material, and robust, levels of cooperation. This effect is mediated by the interaction structure, such that collaboration leads to greater levels of cooperation when each individual strategically interacts with relatively few other individuals, matching well-known characteristics of human interaction networks. Conversely, collaboratively induced cooperation vanishes from dense networks, thus placing environmental limits on collaboration’s successful role in cooperation. It is traditional in game theory to model cooperation as the play of a given strategy in a social dilemma. This approach is subject to the criticism that cooperation has to be separately defined for each new situation in which it is considered. Recently, collaboration—the ability to participate in collective decision making and optimization, has been proposed as an alternative approach to cooperative behavior. Collaboration has the benefit that it can be defined independently of any game. We bring these two approaches together, showing that even relatively rare opportunities for collaboration can support robust levels of cooperation, especially when interaction networks are sparse. This result is significant as human networks are often sparse and so our results support the wide distribution and persistence of cooperation across human populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simon D. Angus
- Department of Economics, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
- SoDa Laboratories, Monash Business School, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
- * E-mail:
| | - Jonathan Newton
- Institute of Economic Research, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
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Affiliation(s)
- Jorg J. M. Massen
- Animal Ecology Group Department of Biology Institute of Environmental Biology Utrecht University Utrecht The Netherlands
- Department of Cognitive Biology University of Vienna Vienna Austria
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45
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Massen JJ, Behrens F, Martin JS, Stocker M, Brosnan SF. A comparative approach to affect and cooperation. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2019; 107:370-387. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.09.027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2019] [Revised: 09/16/2019] [Accepted: 09/19/2019] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
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Abstract
Cumulative technological culture (CTC) refers to the increase in the efficiency and complexity of tools and techniques in human populations over generations. A fascinating question is to understand the cognitive origins of this phenomenon. Because CTC is definitely a social phenomenon, most accounts have suggested a series of cognitive mechanisms oriented toward the social dimension (e.g., teaching, imitation, theory of mind, and metacognition), thereby minimizing the technical dimension and the potential influence of non-social, cognitive skills. What if we have failed to see the elephant in the room? What if social cognitive mechanisms were only catalyzing factors and not the sufficient and necessary conditions for the emergence of CTC? In this article, we offer an alternative, unified cognitive approach to this phenomenon by assuming that CTC originates in non-social cognitive skills, namely technical-reasoning skills which enable humans to develop the technical potential necessary to constantly acquire and improve technical information. This leads us to discuss how theory of mind and metacognition, in concert with technical reasoning, can help boost CTC. The cognitive approach developed here opens up promising new avenues for reinterpreting classical issues (e.g., innovation, emulation vs. imitation, social vs. asocial learning, cooperation, teaching, and overimitation) in a field that has so far been largely dominated by other disciplines, such as evolutionary biology, mathematics, anthropology, archeology, economics, and philosophy.
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Castellano-Navarro A, Guillén-Salazar F, Albiach-Serrano A. Competitive children, cooperative mothers? Effect of various social factors on the retrospective and prospective use of theory of mind. J Exp Child Psychol 2019; 190:104715. [PMID: 31726243 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2019.104715] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2019] [Revised: 09/04/2019] [Accepted: 09/11/2019] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Our capacity to attribute mental states to others, or theory of mind (ToM), affects the way in which we manage social interactions. Likewise, the social scenario in which we find ourselves probably influences our use of ToM. In this study, 6-year-old children and adult women participated in pairs in a task where participants needed to infer their partner's behavior considering the partner's visual perception (Experiment 1), knowledge (Experiment 2), and false belief (Experiment 3) regarding the placement of rewards under cups. The results were analyzed according to the temporal direction of the inference (past or future behavior of the partner), the social context (competition or cooperation), and-in the case of women-the type of social relationship with their partner (another adult or their own child). Children solved only the visual perception task, and adults solved the three tasks but performed better in the visual perception task than in the false belief task, suggesting that not only developmental issues but also differences in the intrinsic difficulty of the tasks underlie children's results. The temporal direction of the inference, in contrast, did not influence their results. Whereas children performed better in the competition context, adults performed better in the cooperation context in one experiment. Moreover, women avoided competing against their own child, and even cooperated with her or him when this was against their own interest, suggesting that cooperation between mothers and children might have been a key driving force in the evolution of ToM in our species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alba Castellano-Navarro
- Ethology and Animal Welfare Section, Universidad Cardenal Herrera-CEU, CEU Universities, E-46115 Alfara del Patriarca, Valencia, Spain.
| | - Federico Guillén-Salazar
- Ethology and Animal Welfare Section, Universidad Cardenal Herrera-CEU, CEU Universities, E-46115 Alfara del Patriarca, Valencia, Spain
| | - Anna Albiach-Serrano
- Ethology and Animal Welfare Section, Universidad Cardenal Herrera-CEU, CEU Universities, E-46115 Alfara del Patriarca, Valencia, Spain
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Clark H, Leavens DA. Testing dogs in ape-like conditions: the effect of a barrier on dogs' performance on the object-choice task. Anim Cogn 2019; 22:1063-1072. [PMID: 31346861 PMCID: PMC6834926 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-019-01297-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2019] [Revised: 07/08/2019] [Accepted: 07/19/2019] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
Recent reviews have found marked procedural and methodological differences in the testing of different taxonomic groups on the object-choice task. One such difference is the imposition of a barrier in the testing environment of nonhuman primates in the form of a cage, necessitated to ensure the experimenter's safety. Here, we conducted two studies with domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) in which we compared the performance of dogs tested from within a child's playpen and dogs tested without this barrier present. In Study 1, in a within-subjects design, we found no effect of the barrier on dogs' ability to use a pointing cue, but there was an increase in instances in which dogs failed to choose a cup. In Study 2, in a between-subjects design, dogs tested with a barrier failed to perform above chance, and were also more likely to fail to make a choice. When dogs tested without a barrier made an incorrect response, these were more likely to be incorrect choices than no choice errors. We discuss the implications of these differences in behavioural responses in function of the presence of a barrier and the necessity of ensuring matched conditions when comparing across species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hannah Clark
- School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Falmer, East Sussex, BN1 9QH, UK
| | - David A Leavens
- School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Falmer, East Sussex, BN1 9QH, UK.
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50
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Bowman LC, Dodell-Feder D, Saxe R, Sabbagh MA. Continuity in the neural system supporting children's theory of mind development: Longitudinal links between task-independent EEG and task-dependent fMRI. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2019; 40:100705. [PMID: 31593908 PMCID: PMC6974892 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2019.100705] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2018] [Revised: 07/08/2019] [Accepted: 08/28/2019] [Indexed: 10/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Children's explicit theory of mind (ToM) understandings change over early childhood. We examined whether there is longitudinal stability in the neurobiological bases of ToM across this time period. A previous study found that source-localized resting EEG alpha attributable to the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) and right temporoparietal junction (RTPJ) was associated with children's performance on a battery of theory of mind tasks. Here, we investigated a small subset of children (N = 12) in that original study as a preliminary investigation of whether behavioral measures of ToM performance, and/or EEG localized to the DMPFC or RTPJ predicted ToM-specific fMRI responses 3.5 years later. Results showed that preschoolers' behavioral ToM-performance positively predicted later ToM-specific fMRI responses in the DMPFC. Preschoolers' resting EEG attributable to the DMPFC also predicted later ToM-specific fMRI responses in the DMPFC. Given the small sample, results represent a first exploration and require replication. Intriguingly, they suggest that early maturation of the area of the DMPFC related to ToM reasoning is positively linked with its specific recruitment for ToM reasoning later in development, affording implications for characterizing conceptual ToM development, and its underlying neural supports.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Rebecca Saxe
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States
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