Week 7: RepresentationWeek 7: Representation

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

RepresentationRepresentation

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

RepresentationRepresentation

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

BUT…we know he was wrong about some things – maybe babies can represent!

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

Imitation: innate?Imitation: innate?

Meltzoff & Moore’s discovery of imitation in neonates

Imitation: innate?Imitation: innate?

Meltzoff & Moore’s 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)

Other explanations?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

Deferred ImitationDeferred Imitation

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

Meltzoff, 1988

3 actions:

“Beep beep beep!”

“rattle rattle!”

½ of the 9mth olds in experimental group imitated immediately and 24 hours later

Very few of the controls repeated the same actions

Bauer’s workBauer’s work

Question:– Can 9 month old infants encode and recall a

sequence of actions over time?

Showed two-step sequencesRecorded ERP during immediate and

delayed recognition and 1-month later, recall

BauerBauer

Immediate = all infants recognizeHigh individual variation in 1-week

recognition in terms of ERPERP activity during recognition at 1 week

predicted recall at 1 month

Representation and PlayRepresentation 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?

Nielsen & Dissayanake Nielsen & Dissayanake

Assessed deferred imitation from 9 monthsPretend play from 15 months

Advent of pretend play linked to ability to imitate

Children’s Knowledge of ObjectsChildren’s 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

Violation of Expectation: Habituation Violation of Expectation: Habituation EventEvent

Screen moves through 180 degree plane until baby gets bored

Violation of Expectation: Test Event Violation of Expectation: Test Event #1: Possible Event#1: Possible Event

Screen moves through 112 degree plane and stops at occluder

Violation of Expectation: Test Event # Violation of Expectation: Test Event # 2: Impossible event2: Impossible event

Screen moves through 180 degree plane despite occluder

Violation of ExpectationViolation of Expectation

Babies represent objects that are not in view, have expectations about how they will act

Spelke’s research with the moving rod is the same idea

Spelke’s workSpelke’s work

While their abilities are impressive they do not know everything…

Habituation Consistent Inconsistent

Spelke’s workSpelke’s 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

Wynn’s workWynn’s work

Can children add and subtract?

Wynn’s workWynn’s work

Can children add and subtract?May be subitizing

What does it mean?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!!

Structure of knowledge:Structure of knowledge:PiagetPiaget

Knowledge builds from nothing to something

Structure of Knowledge:Structure of Knowledge:Karmiloff-SmithKarmiloff-Smith

Knowledge is there, moves to conscious awareness

Impl

icit

Exp

l ic i

t

Representational InsightRepresentational Insight

The idea that something can stand for something other than itself, e.g. written words, language

DeLoache’s work with scale models: < 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

DeLoache (2000)DeLoache (2000)

Maybe pictures make task easierExp. 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

DeLoache (2000) con’dDeLoache (2000) con’d

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

DeLoache (2000) Con’dDeLoache (2000) Con’d

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

DeLoache (2000): Last one…DeLoache (2000): Last one…

Attributes 2.5 and some 3 year olds trouble with scale model to a problem with Dual Representation

Can’t 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

Liben’s workLiben’s work

Looks at children’s use of maps and their understanding of pictures

Children advance in their understanding of maps

Children initially pick pictures based on referent

Other Representation Tasks…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

Appearance / Reality and Fantasy / RealityAppearance / 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…

Appearance / RealityAppearance / Reality

Paradox in Appearance / Reality tasks

What is this?What is this?

What is it REALLY?What is it REALLY?

Appearance / RealityAppearance / Reality

Paradox in Appearance / Reality tasks Children can now say what it really is despite

what it looks like BUT…won’t 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!

Distinction between appearance and reality has a relation to understanding of own and others’ mental states

I.e. Theory of Mind!

Theory of MindTheory of Mind

Children under 4 lack understanding of others’ mental states; have trouble reflecting on their own; some say this is key to cognition

Wellman’s 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

What’s in the box?What’s in the box?

Noooo! It’s LegoNoooo! It’s Lego

What did you think it was when you first saw it? What will Tigger think it is?

Sally-Ann TaskSally-Ann Task(AKA the Maxi 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?

Where is the problem?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 couldn’t get it! ToM as a problem with dual representation

ToM facilitationToM facilitation

If problem is made easier, then they can do it

What is this?What is this?

What is it REALLY?What is it REALLY?

What did you think this was when you first saw it? What will Tigger think this is?

ToM FacilitationToM 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

Is ToM innate?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

Is ToM innate?Is ToM innate?

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

humans

Is ToM innate?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

Questions to ask yourselfQuestions 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?

Davis, Woolley, & Bruell (2002)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?

Davis et al., (2002)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 animalsMin (alien) or rabbit (from earth)

– 2 tasksOne-animal vs two-animalAlso a False belief task

Davis et al., 2002Davis et al., 2002

Questions:– Sarah is wiggling her nose like a min; doesn’t

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?

Davis et al., 2002Davis et al., 2002

Results: False belief < than pretense tasksTwo animal > one animalAll children > than chance (but 3s worse than 4

and 5)

They get this kind of task sooner than some ToM tasks!

Davis et al., 2002Davis et al., 2002Why 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 don’t elicit knowledge

Study 2– Made task even simpler by using thought

bubbles– Pretend and think story tasks

Davis et al., (2002)Davis et al., (2002)

Results:– 4 and 5 year olds >than 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!

Object ClassificationObject 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

Take home messagesTake 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 another’s mind is a crucial developmental ability; forms the foundation for many other cognitive abilities