Title: Week 7: Representation
1Week 7 Representation
- Midterm next week
- 55 multiple choice
- 5 of 8 short answer
2Representation
- We are a symbolic/semiotic species
- Representation can be
- Ideas about how the world works
- Ideas about problem space and how it is solved
- Way we organize declarative memory
3Representation
- Mental images that one has about objects, things,
events in the world, how one interprets their
world - Piaget thought symbolic, or representational
thought was impossible before 18 months - BUTwe know he was wrong about some things
maybe babies can represent!
4- Imitation must create a mental image of what
person is doing, and map onto own body - Again Piaget thought not at all possible until 8
months
5Imitation innate?
- Meltzoff Moores discovery of imitation in
neonates
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7Imitation innate?
- Meltzoff Moores discovery of imitation in
neonates - They believed infant was using true selective
imitation - Use proprioceptive information to intentionally
imitate face of another - Same as intermodal mapping (also seen in very
young infants)
8Other explanations?
- Most said it was due to other things
- Learning?
- Fixed-action pattern, or reflex?
- Socially driven? Preview of turn-taking seen in
older infants - Meltzoff Moore saw it as a social process that
was replaced by more social behaviours
9Deferred Imitation
- Infants must observe model, store representation
of the behaviour, and later retrieve it - Meltzoff, 1988
10Beep beep beep!
rattle rattle!
11- ½ of the 9mth olds in experimental group imitated
immediately and 24 hours later - Very few of the controls repeated the same actions
12Bauers work
- Question
- Can 9 month old infants encode and recall a
sequence of actions over time? - Showed two-step sequences
- Recorded ERP during immediate and delayed
recognition and 1-month later, recall
13Bauer
- Immediate all infants recognize
- High individual variation in 1-week recognition
in terms of ERP - ERP activity during recognition at 1 week
predicted recall at 1 month
14Representation and Play
- Development of majority of social skills is
through play - Pretend play is a form of representation
- Link between deferred imitation and pretend play?
15Nielsen Dissayanake
- Assessed deferred imitation from 9 months
- Pretend play from 15 months
- Advent of pretend play linked to ability to
imitate
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17Childrens Knowledge of Objects
- How they represent the world in their minds
- Baillargeon uses Violation-of-Expectation
paradigm to infer 4 month old infants knowledge
about occluders
18Violation of Expectation Habituation Event
Screen moves through 180 degree plane until baby
gets bored
19Violation of Expectation Test Event 1 Possible
Event
Screen moves through 112 degree plane and stops
at occluder
20Violation of Expectation Test Event 2
Impossible event
Screen moves through 180 degree plane despite
occluder
21Violation of Expectation
- Babies represent objects that are not in view,
have expectations about how they will act - Spelkes research with the moving rod is the same
idea
22Spelkes work
- While their abilities are impressive they do not
know everything
23Habituation
Consistent
Inconsistent
24Spelkes work
- While their abilities are impressive they do not
know everything - Can reason about an occluder when it is in the
way, but not when it is the original stimulus
25Wynns work
- Can children add and subtract?
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27Wynns work
- Can children add and subtract?
- May be subitizing
28What does it mean?
- Babies may be born with some kind of
representation about objects and how they act - Maybe not be innate knowledge about objects per
se, but innate processes allowing them to deal
with perceptual information about objects - May have tools there for them to build cognition
from birth representational thought present
early on! Certainly not what Piaget said!!
29Structure of knowledgePiaget
Knowledge builds from nothing to something
30Structure of KnowledgeKarmiloff-Smith
Knowledge is there, moves to conscious awareness
Explicit
Implicit
31Representational Insight
- The idea that something can stand for something
other than itself, e.g. written words, language - DeLoaches work with scale models
- lt 3 cannot use scale models as representations of
a larger room (only 15 of trials error-free) - Not just forgetting
- 2.5 can use pictures and videotapes to help, and
shrunken room, but not a model
32DeLoache (2000)
- Maybe pictures make task easier
- Exp. 1 gave 8 2 ½ year olds same task, using
only subset of items instead of whole room - In this case, only 16 of the trials were
error-free, as opposed to 80 with pictures - Simpler subset of items still too salient for
child pictures allow distance
33DeLoache (2000) cond
- Make 3D objects less salient, and maybe 2.5 year
olds could use a scale model as a representation - Exp 2 Glass is placed over model to prevent
child from touching it during familiarization - 48 of the trials were errorless, compared to the
usual 15 on the standard scale model task
34DeLoache (2000) Cond
- Maybe you can make it harder for 3 year olds
- Exp 3 3 year olds play with scale model for
5-10 minutes first - Only 44 of trials were errorless as opposed to
the usual 80 - Indicates that increased salience diminishes
ability to use model as representation
35DeLoache (2000) Last one
- Attributes 2.5 and some 3 year olds trouble with
scale model to a problem with Dual Representation - Cant see object as being both something in
itself, and as standing for something else - Example from conference talk
- Website visit
- This ability develops rapidly in children
36Libens work
- Looks at childrens use of maps and their
understanding of pictures - Children advance in their understanding of maps
- Children initially pick pictures based on
referent
37Other Representation Tasks
- False-Picture task
- 3-4 year old children shown a picture of reality
introduce a change in reality, and feel that
picture will change to reflect it - Moving Word Task
- Children believe word represents picture it is
beneath, and not concrete sounds that make up a
word, and that the whole word represents a
particular thing - Believe that words are not immutable
38Appearance / Reality and Fantasy / Reality
- We know children are easily led astray by
appearances (Piaget, Inhibition Theory) - Children often cannot ignore appearance in favor
of reality (See this with costumes, visual
illusions) - Children can distinguish fantasy and reality, but
can be seduced by possibilities, but so can
adults
39Appearance / Reality
- Paradox in Appearance / Reality tasks
40What is this?
41What is it REALLY?
42Appearance / Reality
- Paradox in Appearance / Reality tasks
- Children can now say what it really is despite
what it looks like - BUTwont admit they never knew!
- And will think someone else will think the same
thing! - 3 year olds are egocentric and assume we see the
world as they do!
43- Distinction between appearance and reality has a
relation to understanding of own and others
mental states - I.e. Theory of Mind!
44Theory of Mind
- Children under 4 lack understanding of others
mental states have trouble reflecting on their
own some say this is key to cognition - Wellmans Belief-Desire reasoning Children must
understand that people will act on beliefs, even
when false - When asked to infer old mental states no longer
in existence, or others mental states, children
typically fail
45Whats in the box?
46Noooo! Its Lego
What did you think it was when you first saw it?
What will Tigger think it is?
47Sally-Ann Task(AKA the Maxi task)
- Sally-Ann is in the kitchen with her friend
- She has chocolate, and puts it away in a cupboard
- She leaves the room
- Her friend then moves the chocolate from the
cupboard to a drawer - Sally-Ann comes back
- Where will she look for the chocolate?
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49Where is the problem?
- 3-year-old children fail the two previous tasks
- According to Wellman, they do not get that the
confederates have false beliefs - They have an inaccurate theory of how mental
states operate - Zelazo and Boseovski (2001) caught them on
videotape, and they STILL couldnt get it! - ToM as a problem with dual representation
50ToM facilitation
- If problem is made easier, then they can do it
51What is this?
52What is it REALLY?
What did you think this was when you first saw
it? What will Tigger think this is?
53ToM Facilitation
- This is a representational object to begin with,
they never bought that it was a snowman, so they
can go back there flexibly - Change task to something more relevant (Repacholi
Gopnik) - Wellman believes children have mature ToM, just
overemphasize Desires in reasoning
54Is ToM innate?
- Baron-Cohen believes we are born with individual
ToM modules that kick in at any given time - (EDD, SAM, ToM)
- Neurological evidence supports this
- Castelli et al (2002)
- www.icn.ucl.ac.uk/dev_group/research.htm
55Is ToM innate?
- Some believe ToM is specific to humans, make us
different from primates - Evidence from giving apes ToM tasks with humans
56Is ToM innate?
- Some believe ToM is specific to humans, make us
different from primates - Some argue that this is the problem in Autism,
despite normal intelligence - Castelli et al (2002)
- This implies domain-specific cognition
57Questions to ask yourself
- What would the domain-general theories of
cognitive development discussed previously have
to say about dual representation and ToM (i.e.,
Fuzzy Trace and inhibition theory)? - How could we test it?
58Davis, Woolley, Bruell (2002)
- Children readily engage in pretense on their own
- Do they get it if someone else is pretending?
- Do they understand role of knowledge and thinking
in pretense? - Do they get it earlier than we think?
59Davis et al., (2002)
- Study 1
- 3, 4, and 5 year olds
- Story involved 3 people
- Gleeb (alien), Sarah (North American), Loki
(other country) - 2 animals
- Min (alien) or rabbit (from earth)
- 2 tasks
- One-animal vs two-animal
- Also a False belief task
60Davis et al., 2002
- Questions
- Sarah is wiggling her nose like a min doesnt
know what a min is Is she pretending to be a
min, or is she just wriggling her nose? - Gleeb is hopping like a min and a rabbit do
knows mins but not rabbits Is Gleeb pretending
to be a rabbit or a min?
61Davis et al., 2002
- Results
- False belief lt than pretense tasks
- Two animal gt one animal
- All children gt than chance (but 3s worse than 4
and 5) - They get this kind of task sooner than some ToM
tasks!
62Davis et al., 2002
- Why pass this but fail ToM?
- Existing tasks in lit too hard
- Could be that they are in a transitional period
- Could be that they get it even earlier, but that
tasks dont elicit knowledge - Study 2
- Made task even simpler by using thought bubbles
- Pretend and think story tasks
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65Davis et al., (2002)
- Results
- 4 and 5 year olds gtthan 3 year olds, but all
groups much better than chance - Discussion
- Children understand at least by 4, and probably
younger, that to pretend something you need to
know about it, and you need to have something in
mind to be pretending it!
66Object Classification
- 4 phases of classification
- Idiosyncratic (2-3years)
- Perceptual (3 or 4)
- Complimentary (between 4 and 6)
- Conceptual (after 6)
- Children move from focusing on external
properties to internal nature of objects - Have a better way of structuring their knowledge
67Take home messages
- Infants appear to have some forms of
representation at birth (imitation, object
knowledge) - Representation moves from implicit unconscious
knowledge to explicit knowledge - Representation what is on anothers mind is a
crucial developmental ability forms the
foundation for many other cognitive abilities