‘Like me’: a foundation for social cognition

Meltzoff, Andrew N.

doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2007.00574.x

Cited by 631 publications

(510 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…More generally, and consistent with research that shows that children are avid learners who eagerly look for clues about how the physical world operates (34,35), our data build on theories of children's social learning (36,37) by documenting that reciprocal interactions trigger the enactment and expectation of altruism in young children. That is, after an experience with reciprocity, children seem to construct a community characterized by care and commitment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 55%

Rethinking natural altruism: Simple reciprocal interactions trigger children’s benevolence

Barragan

Dweck

2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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A very simple reciprocal activity elicited high degrees of altruism in 1-and 2-y-old children, whereas friendly but nonreciprocal activity yielded little subsequent altruism. In a second study, reciprocity with one adult led 1-and 2-y-olds to provide help to a new person. These results question the current dominant claim that social experiences cannot account for early occurring altruistic behavior. A third study, with preschool-age children, showed that subtle reciprocal cues remain potent elicitors of altruism, whereas a fourth study with preschoolers showed that even a brief reciprocal experience fostered children's expectation of altruism from others. Collectively, the studies suggest that simple reciprocal interactions are a potent trigger of altruism for young children, and that these interactions lead children to believe that their relationships are characterized by mutual care and commitment.reciprocity | altruism | social development | morality

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 55%

Rethinking natural altruism: Simple reciprocal interactions trigger children’s benevolence

Barragan

Dweck

2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Second, children have their own first-person experiences of mental states. Upon observing the similarity between their own and other people's external actions and circumstances, children may infer that other people also experience internal states similar to their own (17)(18)(19). Third, children hear how other people talk about the mind, including descriptions of mental states like beliefs and emotions.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Growing up blind does not change the neural bases of Theory of Mind

Bedny

Pascual‐Leone

Saxe

2009

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

101

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Humans reason about the mental states of others; this capacity is called Theory of Mind (ToM). In typically developing adults, ToM is supported by a consistent group of brain regions: the bilateral temporoparietal junction (TPJ), medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), precuneus (PC), and anterior temporal sulci (aSTS). How experience and intrinsic biological factors interact to produce this adult functional profile is not known. In the current study we investigate the role of visual experience in the development of the ToM network by studying congenitally blind adults. In experiment 1, participants listened to stories and answered true/false questions about them. The stories were either about mental or physical representations of reality (e.g., photographs). In experiment 2, participants listened to stories about people's beliefs based on seeing or hearing; people's bodily sensations (e.g., hunger); and control stories without people. Participants judged whether each story had positive or negative valance. We find that ToM brain regions of sighted and congenitally blind adults are similarly localized and functionally specific. In congenitally blind adults, reasoning about mental states leads to activity in bilateral TPJ, MPFC, PC, and aSTS. These brain regions responded more to passages about beliefs than passages about nonbelief representations or passages about bodily sensations. Reasoning about mental states that are based on seeing is furthermore similar in congenitally blind and sighted individuals. Despite their different developmental experience, congenitally blind adults have a typical ToM network. We conclude that the development of neural mechanisms for ToM depends on innate factors and on experiences represented at an abstract level, amodally.

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“…Previous psychological accounts of embodiment have accepted the concept of a bodily self as obvious and unproblematic (e.g., James, 1890), have linked it to a single somatic sensory system such as visceral interoception (e.g., Damasio, 1999), or have assumed a single innate capacity for self-representation (e.g, Meltzoff, 2007). Our study demonstrates for the first time that experience of one's own body is not a single dimension, but a composite of several different subjective components, organised with a characteristic structure.…”

Section: Sensory Conflict and Deafferencementioning

confidence: 99%

What is embodiment? A psychometric approach

et al. 2008

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What is it like to have a body? The present study takes a psychometric approach to this question. We collected structured introspective reports of the rubber hand illusion, to systematically investigate the structure of bodily self-consciousness. Participants observed a rubber hand that was stroked either synchronously or asynchronously with their own hand and then made proprioceptive judgments of the location of their own hand and used Likert scales to rate their agreement or disagreement with 27 statements relating to their subjective experience of the illusion. Principal components analysis of this data revealed four major components of the experience across conditions, which we interpret as: embodiment of rubber hand, loss of own hand, movement, and affect. In the asynchronous condition, an additional fifth component, deafference, was found. Secondary analysis of the embodiment of rubber hand component revealed three subcomponents in both conditions: ownership, location, and agency. The ownership and location components were independent significant predictors of proprioceptive biases induced by the illusion. These results suggest that psychometric tools may provide a rich method for studying the structure of conscious experience, and point the way towards an empirically rigorous phenomenology. Psychometrics of Embodiment 3

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‘Like me’: a foundation for social cognition

Cited by 631 publications

References 73 publications

Rethinking natural altruism: Simple reciprocal interactions trigger children’s benevolence

Rethinking natural altruism: Simple reciprocal interactions trigger children’s benevolence

Growing up blind does not change the neural bases of Theory of Mind

What is embodiment? A psychometric approach

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