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it’s pure and simple...

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The Fabric of the Social World

dr fenja ziegler

•c82 sad•lecture 1•

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are you a mind reader?

predict and explain behaviour using abstract

concepts:minddesirethink

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mind, chocolate & Ford T• predicting behaviour

• understanding behaviour

• deception

• language

• imagination

• communication

• action understanding

• morals

• empathy

• imitation

• transmission of knowledge

chocolat

e search

behaviou

r

chocolat

e search

behaviou

r

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time’s not on our side

6 million years ago

2 million years ago

homo

modern humans

australopithecines

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4,500,000,000,000 in 24 hours(Bryson, 2003)

00:00 am: beginning of earth history04:00 am: beginning of life (single cell organism)16 (sixteen!) hours later....08:30 pm: Sea plants08:50 pm: Jellyfish & Ediacaran fauna09:04 pm: Trilobites & Burgess Shale creatures09:59 pm: Land plants10:01 pm: Land creatures10:24 pm: Carboniferous forest cover & winged insects10:59 pm: Dinosaurs11:39 pm: Dinosaurs extinct & Start of Age of Mammals11:58:43 pm: HumansMidnight: ... now ... this lecture

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time’s not on our side

6 million years ago

2 million years ago

homo

modern humans

australopithecines

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time’s not on our side

99%

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time’s not on our side

tool use

symbolic communication

complex social organisations

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time’s not on our side

•biological evolution:•too slow•(cumulative) cultural evolution•ratchet effect•no one single individual, but build on existing knowledge

•others are like me•learn from and through the other•what things are ‘for’

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it’s not really about chocolate... building blocks of mentalising

• development

• typical

• abnormal

• adults and infants

• neural processes

• how we do it

• are we really the only ones?

• associated skills and problems

• know others, know thyself

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before you connect with other minds

• others are like me... what’s me?

• the brain that can reflect on itself

• the development of knowledge about the self

• dawning of an understanding of one’s own existence

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how do I know that you know that you are you?

• an agent of your own actions

• And aware that you are

• how do you know it is you?

Gordon Gallup Jr.

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mirror, mirror on the wall

• is that me?

• cat treats reflection as other cat

• are YOU afraid of your own shadow?

• self concept (including what I normally cannot see)

• who’s me?

• not you

• seeing mirror reflection or video recording (Povinelli et al. 1996)

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what does this really show?

•mirror recognition is artefact of anesthesia•self-recognition does not imply self concept•implies agency, but agency possessed by all mobile non-humans (avoid collisions)

Heyes’s critique

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Gallup’s response

• some studies don’t involve anaesthetic

• apesmarked selectively touch the marked zone | apesunmarked do not

• passing the test is species specific

• passing in chimps is linked to chronological age in chimps; passed 8 years old

• necessary but not sufficient for judgements of ignorance (children and apes)

Daniel Povinelli

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from me to you....you are like me

I can see you

I can’t see me

I can feel this

I can’t feel that

Andy Meltzoff

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know thyself...

• who knows best is authority

• who’s the authority on you?

• does Mum know best?

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from physical to psychologicalRosenberg (1967)

• Who am I?

• ten things

• children aged 10:

• focus on physical qualities

• adolescents:

• aspects of relationships with others

• character

• inner feelings

• “If I asked you and your mother how good you were, and you said one thing and she said another, who would be right?”

• 70% of 10 year olds say mother would be right

• 60% of 15 year olds say they would be right

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interior and exteriorwho knows best...?

• characteristics and behaviour (external):

• how good at sums?

• how well Beth can sit still?

• how fast you can run?

• how hard Tommy works?

• how good at tidying your room?

• how helpful Beth is?

• Morris Rosenberg (1979) aged 11

• Sarah Burton and Mitchell (2003)

• thoughts and feelings (internal)

• what you secrets are?

• what games Tommy likes?

• what you want to be when you grow up?

• when Beth cries who knows best what is wrong?

• what your favourite food is?

• who knows best when Tommy is feeling hungry?

Specific Questions

Specific Questions

Self and Other Child

Self and Other Child

Different adults

Different adults

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so, who knows...best?

Even 7 y.o. cite themselves

Even 7 y.o. cite themselvesSharp Age

trend

Sharp Age trend 6 y.o. sensitive

to interior/ exterior

6 y.o. sensitive to interior/

exterior

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WHY do children start out thinking they don’t know their own mind?

• failure to grasp the value of first person subjective access

• Why?

• Wittgenstein’s private language argument (Montgomery, 1997)

• The role of culture:

• parents tell us that they can read our minds

• more prevalent in South East Asia than Western society (Fivush & Wang, 2005)

private language

Internal State

Internal State External

correlates

External correlates

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bananas ... and mental representation

• pretend play from 18 months old:

• explore a hypothetical world via symbolism

• dawning of understanding other minds

• dual representation

object as is • pretend object

Alan Leslie

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morals and empathy

• emotional contagion

• imitation

• empathy

It’s your pain not mine

I feel your pain Empathic awareness

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the shape of things to come

1. Fabric and Building blocks

2. Ontogeny of Mentalising

3. Phylogeny: the Mental world of apes (and others)

4. Mindblind: Autism

5. Not just what, but how?

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selected key references

• Burton, S., & Mitchell, P. (2003). Child Development, 74, 426-444.

• Heyes, C. M. (1994). Animal Behaviour, 47, 909-919

• Leslie, A.M. (1987). Psychological Review, 94, 412-426.

• Meltzoff, A. N., & Moore, M. K. (1977). Science, 198(4312), 74-78.

• Povinelli, D.J. & Eddy, T.J. (1996).Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development (Vol. 61, No. 247)

• Povinelli, D.J., Landau, K.R., & Perilloux, H.K. (1996). Child Development, 67, 1540-1554.

• Tomasello, Michael (1999) The cultural origins of human cognition. London: HUP

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cognitive evolution