scholarly journals Cultural variation in young children’s social motivation for peer collaboration and its relation to the ontogeny of Theory of Mind

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (11) ◽  
pp. e0242071
Author(s):  
Roman Stengelin ◽  
Robert Hepach ◽  
Daniel B. M. Haun
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognition ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Sampling Bias ◽  
Social Motivation ◽  
Early Ontogeny ◽  
Peer Collaboration ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Cultural Variation

Children seek and like to engage in collaborative activities with their peers. This social motivation is hypothesized to facilitate their emerging social-cognitive skills and vice versa. Current evidence on the ontogeny of social motivation and its’ links to social cognition, however, is subject to a sampling bias toward participants from urban Western populations. Here, we show both cross-cultural variation and homogeneity in three- to eight-year-old children’s expressed positive emotions during and explicit preferences for peer collaboration across three diverse populations (urban German, rural Hai||om/Namibia, rural Ovambo/Namibia; n = 240). Children expressed more positive emotions during collaboration as compared to individual activity, but the extent varied across populations. Children’s preferences for collaboration differed markedly between populations and across ages: While German children across all ages sought collaboration, Hai||om children preferred to act individually throughout childhood. Ovambo children preferred individual play increasingly with age. Across populations, positive emotions expressed selectively during collaboration, predicted children’s social-cognitive skills. These findings provide evidence that culture shapes young children’s social motivation for dyadic peer collaboration. At the same time, the positive relation of social motivation and social cognition in early ontogeny appears cross-culturally constant.

Re-conceptualizing Machiavellianism and Social-Cognitive Skills

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
William Hart ◽  
Christopher J. Breeden ◽  
Charlotte Kinrade
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Person Perception ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Cognitive Skill ◽  
Prediction Skill ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
College Sample ◽  
Social Prediction

Abstract. Machiavellianism is presumed to encompass advanced social-cognitive skill, but research has generally suggested that Machiavellian individuals are rather deficient in social-cognitive skill. However, previous research on the matter has been limited to measures of (a) Machiavellianism that are unidimensional and saturated with both antagonism and disinhibition and measures (b) only one type of social-cognitive skill. Using a large college sample ( N = 461), we examined how various dimensions of Machiavellianism relate to two types of social-cognitive skill: person-perception skill and general social prediction skill. Consistent with some prior theorizing, the planful dimension of Machiavellianism was positively related to both person-perception and general social prediction skills; antagonistic dimensions of Machiavellianism were negatively related to both skills; either agentic or cynical dimensions of Machiavellianism were generally unrelated to both skills. Overall, the current evidence suggests a complicated relationship between Machiavellianism and social-cognitive skill because Machiavellianism encompasses features that blend deficiency, proficiency, and average levels of social-cognitive skills.

scholarly journals Social Cognition through the Lens of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Arioli ◽  
Chiara Crespi ◽  
Nicola Canessa
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Cognition ◽  
Cognitive Deficits ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Acquired Brain Injury ◽  
Clinical Neuroscience ◽  
Pathological Conditions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Cognitive Deficits

Social cognition refers to a set of processes, ranging from perception to decision-making, underlying the ability to decode others’ intentions and behaviors to plan actions fitting with social and moral, besides individual and economic considerations. Its centrality in everyday life reflects the neural complexity of social processing and the ubiquity of social cognitive deficits in different pathological conditions. Social cognitive processes can be clustered in three domains associated with (a) perceptual processing of social information such as faces and emotional expressions (social perception), (b) grasping others’ cognitive or affective states (social understanding), and (c) planning behaviors taking into consideration others’, in addition to one’s own, goals (social decision-making). We review these domains from the lens of cognitive neuroscience, i.e., in terms of the brain areas mediating the role of such processes in the ability to make sense of others’ behavior and plan socially appropriate actions. The increasing evidence on the “social brain” obtained from healthy young individuals nowadays constitutes the baseline for detecting changes in social cognitive skills associated with physiological aging or pathological conditions. In the latter case, impairments in one or more of the abovementioned domains represent a prominent concern, or even a core facet, of neurological (e.g., acquired brain injury or neurodegenerative diseases), psychiatric (e.g., schizophrenia), and developmental (e.g., autism) disorders. To pave the way for the other papers of this issue, addressing the social cognitive deficits associated with severe acquired brain injury, we will briefly discuss the available evidence on the status of social cognition in normal aging and its breakdown in neurodegenerative disorders. Although the assessment and treatment of such impairments is a relatively novel sector in neurorehabilitation, the evidence summarized here strongly suggests that the development of remediation procedures for social cognitive skills will represent a future field of translational research in clinical neuroscience.

scholarly journals Comparing physical and social cognitive skills in macaque species with different degrees of social tolerance

2017 ◽  
Vol 284 (1862) ◽  
pp. 20162738 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marine Joly ◽  
Jérôme Micheletta ◽  
Arianna De Marco ◽  
Jan A. Langermans ◽  
Elisabeth H. M. Sterck ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognition ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Primate Species ◽  
Social Tolerance ◽  
Strategic Decisions ◽  
Control Task ◽  
Tolerant Species ◽  
Communication And Coordination

Contemporary evolutionary theories propose that living in groups drives the selection of enhanced cognitive skills to face competition and facilitate cooperation between individuals. Being able to coordinate both in space and time with others and make strategic decisions are essential skills for cooperating within groups. Social tolerance and an egalitarian social structure have been proposed as one specific driver of cooperation. Therefore, social tolerance is predicted to be associated with enhanced cognitive skills that underpin communication and coordination. Social tolerance should also be associated with enhanced inhibition, which is crucial for suppressing automatic responses and permitting delayed gratification in cooperative contexts. We tested the performance of four closely related non-human primate species (genus Macaca ) characterized by different degrees of social tolerance on a large battery of cognitive tasks covering physical and social cognition, and on an inhibitory control task. All species performed at a comparable level on the physical cognition tasks but the more tolerant species outperformed the less tolerant species at a social cognition task relevant to cooperation and in the inhibitory control task. These findings support the hypothesis that social tolerance is associated with the evolution of sophisticated cognitive skills relevant for cooperative social living.

scholarly journals Cumulative contextual risk, maternal responsivity, and social cognition at 18 months

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 189-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Wade ◽  
Chris Moore ◽  
Janet Wilde Astington ◽  
Kristen Frampton ◽  
Jennifer M. Jenkins
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognition ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Cognitive Outcomes ◽  
Semiotic Mediation ◽  
Contextual Risk ◽  
Models Of Development ◽  
Independent Mechanism ◽  
Cognitive Competency

AbstractBy 18 months children demonstrate a range of social–cognitive skills that can be considered important precursors to more advanced forms of social understanding such as theory of mind. Although individual differences in social cognition have been linked to neurocognitive maturation, sociocultural models of development suggest that environmental influences operate in the development of children's social–cognitive outcomes. In the current study of 501 children and their mothers, we tested and found support for a model in which distal environmental risk, assessed when children were newborns, was indirectly associated with children's social–cognitive competency at 18 months through mothers' responsivity at 18 months. Part of this effect also operated through children's concomitant language skills, suggesting both a language-mediated and a language-independent mechanism of social–cognitive development. These findings are discussed with respect to the Vygotskian themes of internalization and semiotic mediation.

Stories and the Promotion of Social Cognition

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 257-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond A. Mar
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognition ◽  
Experimental Research ◽  
Real World ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Critical Questions ◽  
Lines Of Evidence ◽  
Neuropsychological Investigations

Engaging with fictional stories and the characters within them might help us better understand our real-world peers. Because stories are about characters and their interactions, understanding stories might help us to exercise our social cognitive abilities. Correlational studies with children and adults, experimental research, and neuropsychological investigations have all helped develop our understanding of how stories relate to social cognition. However, there remain a number of limitations to the current evidence, some puzzling results, and several unanswered questions that should inspire future research. This review traces multiple lines of evidence tying stories to social cognition and raises numerous critical questions for the field.

Interoception and social cognition in chronic low back pain: a common inference disturbance? An exploratory study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florent El Grabli ◽  
François Quesque ◽  
Céline Borg ◽  
Michael Witthöft ◽  
George A Michael ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Low Back Pain ◽  
Back Pain ◽  
Social Cognition ◽  
Chronic Low Back Pain ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Heart Beat ◽  
Low Back ◽  
Interoceptive Accuracy

Aim: Lower interoceptive abilities are a characteristic of chronic pain conditions. Social support plays an important role in chronic low back pain (cLBP) but social cognitive skills have rarely been investigated. This study aimed to characterize interoceptive and social cognitive abilities in cLBP and to study the relationship between both domains that have been brought closer together by brain predictive coding models. Materials & methods: Twenty-eight patients with cLBP and 74 matched controls were included. Interoceptive accuracy (Heart Beat Perception Task), sensibility/awareness (Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness) and mental-states inference abilities (Mini-Social Cognition and Emotional Assessment) were assessed. Results: cLBP Patients had lower interoceptive accuracy and mentalizing performance. Conclusion: Less efficient interoceptive accuracy and mentalizing abilities were found in cLBP patients without correlation between these performances.

scholarly journals Social Cognition and Neuro-cognition in Patients with Bipolar Disorder, Their First-Degree Relatives and Healthy Controls

2020 ◽  
pp. 025371762095793
Author(s):  
Uma Maheswari Ganesh ◽  
Shwetha TS ◽  
Rajeshkrishna P Bhandary
Keyword(s):  
Bipolar Disorder ◽  
Social Cognition ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Clinical Implications ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Neurocognitive Deficits ◽  
First Degree Relatives ◽  
Potential Risk Factors ◽  
Indian Setting

Background: Studies focusing on assessing social cognition deficits in schizophrenia have been expanded to bipolar disorder considering the similarities shared between the two conditions. Existing research has identified significant deficits in social cognitive skills independent of mood states and neurocognitive deficits, which could indicate the potentiality of this domain to be an endophenotype for bipolar disorder. Methods: The current study assesses the impairments in social cognition in patients with bipolar disorder and their first degree relatives, simultaneously testing for neurocognition as well, and comparing their performance to healthy controls. Fifty four participants were recruited, with 18 participants in each group. MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery was used to test neurocognition and Social Cognition Rating Tool in Indian Setting was administered for testing social cognition. Results: Significant deficits were found in social cognition and neurocognition (at p<.01) in the patient group when compared to both probands and healthy controls but no difference between probands and healthy controls. This finding established impairments in socio-cognitive functioning in remitted patients. Conclusion: The study has identified persistent deficits in social and neuro-cognition despite remission, having significant clinical implications in terms developing remediation programs for social cognition and planning early intervention as social cognition deficits have been identified as potential risk factors.

scholarly journals Social Cognition Deficits Are Pervasive across Both Classical and Overlap Frontotemporal Dementia Syndromes

2020 ◽  
pp. 115-126
Author(s):  
Faheem Arshad ◽  
Avanthi Paplikar ◽  
Shailaja Mekala ◽  
Feba Varghese ◽  
Vandana Valiyaparambath Purushothaman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognition ◽  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Frontotemporal Dementia ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Primary Progressive Aphasia ◽  
Reactivity Index ◽  
Limited Information ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Significant Impairment

<b><i>Objectives:</i></b> Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) syndromes are a complex group of disorders characterised by profound changes in behaviour and cognition. Many of the observed behavioural abnormalities are now recognised to be due to impaired social cognition. While deficits in emotion recognition and empathy are well-recognised in behavioural-variant (Bv)FTD, limited information exists about the nature of social cognitive impairment in the language variant primary progressive aphasia (PPA) that includes progressive non-fluent aphasia (PNFA) and semantic dementia (SD), and in the motor variants FTD amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (FTD-ALS) and FTD progressive supranuclear palsy (FTD-PSP). This prospective study sought to explore the nature and profile of social cognition deficits across the spectrum of FTD. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> Sixty patients on the FTD spectrum, i.e., classical (16 with BvFTD and 20 with PPA) and overlap FTD syndromes (13 with FTD-ALS and 11 with FTD-PSP) were evaluated by means of the social cognition tasks, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) for empathy, and pictures of facial affect (POFA) for emotion recognition. General cognition and behaviour were also assessed. <b><i>Results:</i></b> A significant impairment in emotion recognition and empathy was detected in both the classical and overlap FTD syndromes. The recognition of positive emotions was relatively preserved compared to that of negative emotions. Among the FTD subtypes, maximal impairment of empathy was demonstrated in FTD-PSP. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> Social cognition impairment is pervasive across the spectrum of FTD disorders, and tests of emotion recognition and empathy are clinically useful to identify the nature of behavioural problems in both classical and overlap FTD. Our findings also have implications for understanding the neural basis of social cognition in FTD.

scholarly journals Heritability of social cognitive skills in children and adolescents

1999 ◽  
Vol 175 (6) ◽  
pp. 559-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Scourfield ◽  
Neilson Martin ◽  
Glyn Lewis ◽  
Peter McGuffin
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognition ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Environmental Influences ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Genetic Influence ◽  
Behaviour Problems ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Age Related Changes

BackgroundSocial cognitive skills are those which enable understanding of social situations; they are relevant to a variety of psychiatric disorders including autism, schizophrenia and externalising behaviour problems in children.AimsTo examine the heritability of social cognitive skills.MethodUsing a population-based sample of twins aged 5–17, the genetic and environmental influences on social cognitive skills were examined.ResultsMale scores were higher than female scores (P < 0.001), indicating poorer social cognition among males. A heritability of 0.68 (95% CI 0.43–0.78) was found, with shared environmental influences accounting for only 0.05 of the variance (95% CI 0.00–0.28). This could be removed from the model without worsening the fit. There were no significant differences in genetic effects between the genders, but age-related changes were found, with younger twins showing greater genetic influence on social cognition.ConclusionsSocial cognition appears to be under considerable genetic influence in the population and shows significant male–female differences. No gender differences in genetic influences on the variance of scores were found, but the effects of age were significant.

scholarly journals Tryptophan-enriched diet or 5-hydroxytryptophan supplementation given in a randomized controlled trial impacts social cognition on a neural and behavioral level

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Zamoscik ◽  
S. N. L. Schmidt ◽  
R. Bravo ◽  
L. Ugartemendia ◽  
T. Plieger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognition ◽  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Information Integration ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Supramarginal Gyrus ◽  
Age Related

AbstractUnderstanding of emotions and intentions are key processes in social cognition at which serotonin is an important neuromodulator. Its precursor is the essential amino acid tryptophan (TRP). Reduced TRP availability leads to weaker impulse control ability and higher aggression, while TRP supplementation promotes confidence. In a double-blind placebo-controlled fMRI study with 77 healthy adults, we investigated the influence of a 4 week TRP enriched diet and an acute 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) intake on two social-cognitive tasks, a moral evaluation and an emotion recognition task. With 5-HTP, immoral behavior without negative consequences was rated as more reprehensible. Additionally, during story reading, activation in insula and supramarginal gyrus was increased after TRP intake. No significant effects of TRP on emotion recognition were identified for the whole sample. Importantly, emotion recognition ability decreased with age which was for positive emotions compensated by TRP. Since the supramarginal gyrus is associated with empathy, pain and related information integration results could be interpreted as reflecting stricter evaluation of negative behavior due to better integration of information. Improved recognition of positive emotions with TRP in older participants supports the use of a TRP-rich diet to compensate for age related decline in social-cognitive processes.

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