Marc de Rosnay

The nature of cognition

Most cognitive psychology texts are organized around empirical findings on standard substantive topics such as perception, memory, vision, and language. This book is the first to introduce the study of cognition in terms of the major conceptual themes that underlie virtually all the substantive topics. Taking a dialectical approach, the chapters contrast alternative approaches to the underlying themes (e.g., domain-generality vs. domain-specificity), then show how a synthesis of the two approaches provides the best understanding. The book is organized into six sections: general issues in cognition, representation and process in cognition, methodology in cognition, kinds of cognition, group and individual differences in cognition, and a conclusion. Contributors: Rhianon Allen, Axel Buchner, Patricia A. Carpenter, Stephen J. Ceci, Michael Cole, Eduardus DeBruyn, Randall W. Engle, Peter A. Frensch, Elena L. Grigorenko, Earl Hunt, P.N. Johnson-Laird, Marcel Adam Just, Michael Kahana, John F. Kihlstrom, Geoffrey Loftus, Valerie S. Makin, Timothy P. McNamara, Thomas O. Nelson, Raymond S. Nickerson, Natalie Oransky, Elizabeth A. Phelps, Dennis R. Proffitt, Arthur S. Reber, Paul J. Reber, Daniel N. Robinson, Tina B. Rosenblum, Brian H. Ross, Steven Sloman, Robert J. Sternberg.

Young Children’s Trust in Their Mother’s Claims: Longitudinal Links With Attachment Security in Infancy

In a longitudinal study of attachment, children (N = 147) aged 50 and 61 months heard their mother and a stranger make conflicting claims. In 2 tasks, the available perceptual cues were equally consistent with either persons claim but children generally accepted the mothers claims over those of the stranger. In a 3rd task, the perceptual cues favored the strangers claims, and children generally accepted her claims over those of the mother. However, childrens pattern of responding varied by attachment status. The strategy of relying on the mother or the stranger, depending on the available perceptual cues, was especially evident among secure children. Insecure-avoidant children displayed less reliance on their mothers claims, irrespective of the available cues, whereas insecure-resistant children displayed more.

Individual differences in children's understanding of emotion: the roles of attachment and language.

There is accumulating evidence of a relationship between secure attachment and childrens understanding of emotion (Fonagy & Target, 1997; Harris, 1999). The current experiment asked if this relationship is particularly evident when the test of emotion understanding includes attachment-related material or is equally marked on tests with and without attachment-related material. Children ranging from 3–6 years were given a novel test of emotion understanding (the Mother-Infant Separation Test Video) that incorporated provocative attachment themes and also an affectively neutral test of emotion understanding. They performed quite consistently on both types of test - either passing both or failing both. In addition, attachment security, measured concurrently by means of the Separation Anxiety Test, contributed to a correct performance on both tests. This contribution remained when other individual differences were controlled for (age, verbal mental age and gender). Possible explanations of the relationship between attachment and emotion understanding are discussed.

False-Belief Understanding and Social Preference Over the First 2 Years of School: A Longitudinal Study

The role of false belief in establishing childrens social relationships during the transition to school was examined and compared to other social cognitive constructs. One hundred and fourteen 5-year-olds were recruited during their 1st year of school (Time 1); 106 children were retained 1 year later. False belief, emotion expression recognition, empathy, verbal ability, and peer-rated social preference were measured at both times. False belief at Time 1 had a direct influence on concurrent social preference, over and above the influence of emotion expression recognition and empathy. False belief made no independent contribution to later social preference accounting for stability in social preference. The role of social cognitive development is discussed with respect to how children establish and maintain their position in a peer group.

Do young children misunderstand their own emotions

This study investigated childrens ability to understand false beliefs and the emotions caused by false beliefs with a special focus on childrens understanding of their own belief-based emotions. Forty-five children (25 boys and 20 girls) between the ages of 5 and 7 years were tested for their understanding of: (1) false belief of self and other; and (2) belief-based emotion of self and other. Testing procedures included a variation of the classic “Smarties” task (Hogrefe, Wimmer, & Perner, 1986). Children displayed a lag in their understanding of belief-based emotions as compared to false beliefs, even when they were asked to identify their own emotions. The findings are discussed in light of theories about how we gain knowledge of our own emotions.

The Impact of Abuse and Learning Difficulties on Emotion Understanding in Late Childhood and Early Adolescence

ABSTRACT Childrens affective experiences and cognitive abilities have an impact on emotion understanding. However, their relative contribution, as well as the possibility of an interaction between them, has rarely been examined. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the influence of severe abuse and learning difficulties on simple and complex components of emotion understanding in late childhood and early adolescence. A total of 28 older children and young adolescents were selected for the study. Half of the participants had suffered from severe abuse, and half of these abused children additionally had learning disabilities. The remaining half of the sample had no history of abuse but were matched with the abused children on learning difficulties, age and gender. The participants’ emotion understanding was assessed with the Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC). Results showed that (a) learning difficulties but not abuse had an impact on emotion understanding, (b) there was no interaction effect of abuse and learning difficulties on emotion understanding, and (b) the observed effects of learning difficulties were most apparent for the understanding of relatively complex components of emotion and not for simple components. The results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical implications.

Understanding of emotions based on counterfactual reasoning in children with autism spectrum disorders

The understanding of emotions based on counterfactual reasoning was studied in children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders (n = 71) and in typically developing children (n = 71), aged 6–12 years. Children were presented with eight stories about two protagonists who experienced the same positive or negative outcome, either due to their own action or by default. Relative to the comparison group, children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder were poor at explaining emotions based on downward counterfactual reasoning (i.e. contentment and relief). There were no group differences in upward counterfactual reasoning (i.e. disappointment and regret). In the comparison group, second-order false-belief reasoning was related to children’s understanding of second-order counterfactual emotions (i.e. regret and relief), while children in the high-functioning autism spectrum disorder group relied more on their general intellectual skills. Results are discussed in terms of the different functions of counterfactual reasoning about emotion and the cognitive style of children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder.

Young Children’s Affective Responses to Another’s Distress: Dynamic and Physiological Features

Two descriptive studies set out a new approach for exploring the dynamic features of children’s affective responses (sadness and interest-worry) to another’s distress. In two samples (N study1 = 75; N study2 = 114), Kindergarten children were shown a video-vignette depicting another child in distress and the temporal pattern of spontaneous expressions were examined across the unfolding vignette. Results showed, in both study 1 and 2, that sadness and interest-worry had distinct patterns of elicitation across the events of the vignette narrative and there was little co-occurrence of these affects within a given child. Temporal heart rate changes (study 2) were closely aligned to the events of the vignette and, furthermore, affective responses corresponded to distinctive physiological response profiles. The implications of distinct temporal patterns of elicitation for the meaning of sadness and interest-worry are discussed within the framework of emotion regulation and empathy.

Limitations in social anticipation are independent of imaginative and Theory of Mind abilities in children with autism but not in typically developing children

Anticipating future interactions is characteristic of our everyday social experiences, yet has received limited empirical attention. Little is known about how children with autism spectrum disorder, known for their limitations in social interactive skills, engage in social anticipation. We asked children with autism spectrum disorder and their typically developing counterparts to consider an interaction with another person in the near future. Our results suggest that children with autism spectrum disorder and typically developing children performed similarly when anticipating the age, gender, and possible questions of another person, but children with autism spectrum disorder struggled more to anticipate what they would say in response to an anticipated interaction. Furthermore, such responses were robustly associated with imaginative capacities in typically developing children but not children with autism spectrum disorder. Our findings suggest that the cognitive mechanisms of social anticipation may differ between these groups.

Blood volume pulse (BVP) derived vagal tone (VT) between 5 and 7 years of age: A methodological investigation of measurement and longitudinal stability

The present study evaluated the possibility of collecting cardiac vagal tone data using a photoplethysmograph, and its stability and continuity in a longitudinal sample of early-school aged children. A method for the optical (i.e., blood volume pulse) estimation of heart rate was established in a pilot study. Then the longitudinal stability and continuity in photoplethysmograph-derived vagal tone was assessed in 114 children (56 girls) at three sessions between 5 and 7 years of age. Results indicate that this method possesses substantial measurement reliability and individual stability, as children report low intra-individual variation over time. Children also report a mean decrease in vagal tone from 5 to 7 years of age, consistent with increased attentional capacity. Overall, this suggests blood volume pulse estimation of vagal tone is both accurate and appropriate for naturalistic developmental research.