Week 7: Representation

1
Week 7 Representation

• Midterm next week
• 55 multiple choice
• 5 of 8 short answer

2
Representation

• 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

3
Representation

• 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

5
Imitation innate?

• Meltzoff Moores discovery of imitation in
  neonates

6
(No Transcript)
7
Imitation 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)

8
Other 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

9
Deferred Imitation

• Infants must observe model, store representation
  of the behaviour, and later retrieve it
• Meltzoff, 1988

10

• 3 actions

Beep 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

12
Bauers 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

13
Bauer

• 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

14
Representation 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?

15
Nielsen Dissayanake

• Assessed deferred imitation from 9 months
• Pretend play from 15 months
• Advent of pretend play linked to ability to
  imitate

16
(No Transcript)
17
Childrens 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

18
Violation of Expectation Habituation Event
Screen moves through 180 degree plane until baby
gets bored
19
Violation of Expectation Test Event 1 Possible
Event
Screen moves through 112 degree plane and stops
at occluder
20
Violation of Expectation Test Event 2
Impossible event
Screen moves through 180 degree plane despite
occluder
21
Violation 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

22
Spelkes work

• While their abilities are impressive they do not
  know everything

23
Habituation
Consistent
Inconsistent
24
Spelkes 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

25
Wynns work

• Can children add and subtract?

26
(No Transcript)
27
Wynns work

• Can children add and subtract?
• May be subitizing

28
What 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!!

29
Structure of knowledgePiaget
Knowledge builds from nothing to something
30
Structure of KnowledgeKarmiloff-Smith
Knowledge is there, moves to conscious awareness
Explicit
Implicit
31
Representational 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

32
DeLoache (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

33
DeLoache (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

34
DeLoache (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

35
DeLoache (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

36
Libens 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

37
Other 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

38
Appearance / 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

39
Appearance / Reality

• Paradox in Appearance / Reality tasks

40
What is this?
41
What is it REALLY?
42
Appearance / 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!

44
Theory 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

45
Whats in the box?
46
Noooo! Its Lego
What did you think it was when you first saw it?
What will Tigger think it is?
47
Sally-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?

48
(No Transcript)
49
Where 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

50
ToM facilitation

• If problem is made easier, then they can do it

51
What is this?
52
What is it REALLY?
What did you think this was when you first saw
it? What will Tigger think this is?
53
ToM 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

54
Is 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

55
Is ToM innate?

• Some believe ToM is specific to humans, make us
  different from primates
• Evidence from giving apes ToM tasks with humans

56
Is 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

57
Questions 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?

58
Davis, 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?

59
Davis 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

60
Davis 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?

61
Davis 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!

62
Davis 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

63
(No Transcript)
64
(No Transcript)
65
Davis 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!

66
Object 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

67
Take 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