When is truth relevant?

We argue that the experience of knowing and having the truth about oneself known in the context of therapy is not an end in itself; rather, it is important because the trust engendered by this experience (epistemic trust or trust in new knowledge) opens one up to learning about one’s social world and finding better ways to live in it. We consider the consequences of a lack of epistemic trust in terms of psychopatholog

Shall I trust you? From child-robot interaction to trusting relationships

Studying trust in the context of human-robot interaction is of great importance given the increasing relevance and presence of robotic agents in various social settings, from educational to clinical. In the present study, we investigated the acquisition, loss and restoration of trust when preschool and school-age children played with either a human or a humanoid robot in-vivo. The relationship between trust and the representation of the quality of attachment relationships, Theory of Mind, and executive function skills was also investigated. Additionally, to outline children\u2019s beliefs about the mental competencies of the robot, we further evaluated the attribution of mental states to the interactive agent. In general, no substantial differences were found in children\u2019s trust in the play-partner as a function of agency (human or robot). Nevertheless, 3-years-olds showed a trend toward trusting the human more than the robot, as opposed to 7-years-olds, who displayed the reverse pattern. These findings align with results showing that, for children aged 3 and 7 years, the cognitive ability to switch was significantly associated with trust restoration in the human and the robot, respectively. Additionally, supporting previous findings, a dichotomy was found between attribution of mental states to the human and robot and children\u2019s behavior: while attributing significantly lower mental states to the robot than the human, in the trusting game children behaved similarly when they related to the human and the robot. Altogether, the results of this study highlight that comparable psychological mechanisms are at play when children are to establish a novel trustful relationship with a human and robot partner. Furthermore, the findings shed light on the interplay \u2013 during development \u2013 between children\u2019s quality of attachment relationships and the development of a Theory of Mind, which act differently on trust dynamics as a function of the children\u2019s age as well as the interactive partner\u2019s nature (human vs. robot)

Attachment and reflective function: Their role in self-organization

The paper traces the relationship between attachment processes and the development of the capacity to envision mental states in self and others. We suggest that the ability to mentalize, to represent behavior in terms of mental states, or to have "a theory of mind" is a key determinant of self-organization which is acquired in the context of the child's early social relationships. Evidence for an association between the quality of attachment relationship and reflective function in the parent and the child is reviewed and interpreted in the context of current models of theory of mind development. A model of the development of self-organization is proposed which has at its core the caregiver's ability to communicate understanding of the child's intentional stance. The implications of the model for pathological self-development are explored, with specific reference to the consequences of maltreatment

Scaffolding Human Champions: AI as a More Competent Other

Artifcial intelligence (AI) has surpassed humans in a number of specialised intellectual activities—chess and Go being two of many examples. Amongst the many potential consequences of such a development, I focus on how we can utilise cutting edge AI to promote human learning. The purpose of this article is to explore how a specialised AI can be utilised in a manner that promotes human growth by acting as a tutor to our champions. A framework for using AI as a tutor of human champions based on Vygotsky’s theory of human learning is here presented. It is based on a philosophical analysis of AI capabilities, key aspects of Vygotsky’s theory of human learning, and existing research on intelligent tutoring systems. The main method employed is the theoretical development of a generalised framework for AI powered expert learning systems, using chess and Go as examples. In addition to this, data from public interviews with top professionals in the games of chess and Go are used to examine the feasibility and realism of using AI in such a manner. Basing the analysis on Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory of development, I explain how AI operates in the zone of proximal development of our champions and how even non-educational AI systems can perform certain scafolding functions. I then argue that AI combined with basic modules from intelligent tutoring systems could perform even more scafolding functions, but that the most interesting constellation right now is scafolding by a group consisting of AI in combination with human peers and instructors.publishedVersio

Theory of mind and teaching in ni-Vanuatu children

While culture is common in the animal kingdom, cumulative culture appears to be limited to humans. Research suggests that this is due to (1) our advanced social cognition, in particular joint attention and Theory of Mind; and (2) our reliance on high-fidelity mechanisms of social learning such as teaching. However, some have argued that these mechanisms are themselves culturally transmitted, vary across cultures, and that contact with Western norms and institutions reshapes cognition in small-scale societies. These proposals require us to test whether developmental trajectories observed in industrialized populations translate to other societies. To this end, I examine the development of Theory of Mind and teaching among children living in rural areas of Vanuatu. In Chapter 2, I combine results from participant observations and informal interviews to explore the ethnographic context. I examine kinship systems, childrearing practices, and worldviews, and discuss how they relate to folk models of the mind and cultural transmission. In Chapter 3, I examine the development of Theory of Mind and mental state talk. Consistent with the idea that Theory of Mind is culturally learnt, the results diverge from Western findings. However, they also contradict earlier studies and point to methodological challenges, urging more caution in the interpretation of cross-cultural work. In Chapter 4, I examine the development of teaching. The results diverge from Western findings, with children’s teaching reflecting local norms and perceptions of cultural transmission. This suggests that while teaching as such is developmentally reliable, specific teaching styles, along with the way we conceptualize teaching, may be culturally learnt. In Chapter 5, I explore various socio-economic and demographic trends associated with ‘modernization’, such as market integration, formal education, overseas travel, and household structure, documenting considerable heterogeneity. However, I failed to find support for the idea that transformations associated with ‘Westernization’ shift children’s cognitive development

Stability of Mind-Mindedness Across the Transition to Motherhood and its Longitudinal Association with Children’s Theory of Mind & Executive Function

Parental mind-mindedness refers to caregivers’ propensity to attribute mind-like and intentional qualities in their interactions with or representation of their young children. It is proposed to be associated with positive developmental outcomes in children’s social understanding, executive functioning (EF), and language abilities. The present dissertation focused on the temporal characterization of maternal mind-mindedness across the transition to motherhood, examined its longitudinal association with children’s theory of mind (ToM) and EF, and investigated potential mechanisms of influence in a sample of socioeconomically diverse first-time mothers. A secondary data analysis was conducted using a longitudinal dataset with 104 women from which maternal mind-mindedness was coded at three timepoints (prenatally during the third trimester of pregnancy, 5-, and 17- months post birth). Children’s cognitive and behavioral outcomes (language, ToM, and EF) were examined at 5 years of age. Results revealed that although prenatal mind-mindedness was not significantly associated with postnatal mind-mindedness, some individual, and possibly trait-like, stability in mothers’ mind-mindedness was present between 5- and 17-months post birth. In addition, mothers’ mind-mindedness at 17 months (but not prenatally or at 5 months) significantly predicted children’s EF at age 5, and the effect persisted beyond maternal education and children’s concurrent language ability. Further, children’s concurrent language ability had a significant indirect effect on the association between mind-mindedness and children’s EF; meanwhile, the direct effect of mind-mindedness on children’s EF remained. Finally, in contrast to some other findings in the literature, mind-mindedness did not predict children’s ToM in the current sample, although it was indirectly associated with ToM through children’s concurrent language ability. These findings suggest that mothers’ mind-mindedness towards their infants (a) is dynamic during the transition from pregnancy to early motherhood with individual stability seen between infancy and toddlerhood, and (b) may play an important role in children’s emerging executive and language abilities. Future research should further characterize prenatal mind-mindedness and whether it may be equivalent to postnatal mind-mindedness, evaluate the interchangeability between the interview and free play measure of the mind-mindedness construct, and further investigate potential pathways through which mind-mindedness may influence children’s language and executive abilities

Terminy wyrażające stany wewnętrzne u dwujęzycznych i jednojęzycznych dzieci w wieku przedszkolnym i wczesnoszkolnym

Our lexicon includes terms that demonstrate our understanding of the fact that people’s actions are governed by internal states such as beliefs, desires, and emotions. These words are internal state terms (IST) and their examples include “think”, “want”, “notice”, “surprised”, “scared”. Altogether, they constitute the Internal State Lexicon (ISL). The ISL might be placed at the intersection of language and theory of mind (ToM) development: IST need to be learned as any other words in the lexicon, and their use is an indicator of children’s mentalizing abilities. The present thesis set out to investigate the use of IST in Polish-English bilingual children at pre- and early school age (4.5-7 years old). Bilingual upbringing may uniquely shape the use of IST. On one hand, bilingual children hear less of each language and have to exert constant control over the two languages. This may translate to lower language performance (e.g. Haman, et al., 2017). On the other hand, bilinguals often outperform monolinguals in their cognitive ability, including theory of mind (Farhadian, et al., 2010; Goetz, 2003; Kovács, 2009). The primary aims of the present analysis were to investigate whether language status (bilingual vs. monolingual) influences the use of IST, and whether IST develop comparably in both languages of the bilingual child. The participants included 75 Polish-English bilingual children aged 4.5-7 years old and living in the UK, and matched 75 Polish monolingual children living in Poland. The internal state terms were elicited via child-made narratives based on a set of pictures. Three subclasses of IST were coded: emotional, mental, and perceptual terms. Children were also asked to retell the story immediately after listening to a model story, and to answer comprehension questions about the story protagonists’ internal states. This was done to explore the effect of modelling on the IST production and to compare the IST production in storytelling and a relatively more interactive context of explicit conversation about internal states. Additionally, the children’s vocabulary and grammar knowledge was assessed in their respective languages, and their theory of mind performance was measured with a test of reflection on thinking. The results showed that while bilinguals exhibited relatively poorer language abilities than monolinguals, the children did not differ in the amount of internal state terms produced when telling a story. However, bilinguals outperformed monolingual peers on the theory of mind task. Thus, these two differences might have evened each other out, leading to no overall difference in the use of IST between the groups. Also, bilinguals used IST similarly in their two languages. It was also found that giving children a model story and explicitly asking them about the internal states of story protagonists sensitized them to their knowledge, desires, and beliefs which resulted in more internal state references in the retellings and answers to the questions than in the narratives told by children on the basis of pictures alone.Nasz słownik zawiera pojęcia, które wskazują na to, że rozumiemy iż ludzkim zachowaniem kierują stany wewnętrzne takie jak przekonania, pragnienia i wiedza. Są to terminy wyrażające stany wewnętrzne (ang. internal state terms, IST) i należą do nich np. „myśleć”, „chcieć”, „zauważyć”, „zaskoczony”, „przestraszony”. Razem terminy te tworzą leksykon terminów wewnętrznych (ang. Internal State Lexicon, ISL). ISL można umiejscowić na styku języka i teorii umysłu: IST muszą zostać przyswojone jak każde inne słowo, a ich użycie jest jednym z wyznaczników zdolności do mentalizacji. Niniejsza praca doktorska bada użycie IST u polsko-angielskich dzieci dwujęzycznych w wieku przed- i wczesnoszkolnym (4,5 – 7 lat). Dwujęzyczność może w sposób unikalny wpływać na użycie IST. Z jednej strony, dzieci dwujęzyczne mają mniej kontaktu z każdym ze swoich języków, w porównaniu z jednojęzycznymi rówieśnikami i muszą monitorować aktywację obu języków. To może skutkować niższymi umiejętnościami językowymi w porównaniu z dziećmi jednojęzycznymi (np. Haman i in., 2017). Z drugiej strony, dzieci dwujęzyczne prześcigają swoich jednojęzycznych rówieśników w zdolnościach poznawczych, w tym teorii umysłu (Farhadian i in., 2010; Goetz, 2003; Kovács, 2009). Głównym celem pracy było zbadanie czy status językowy (jedno- lub dwujęzyczność) wpływa na użycie IST i czy dzieci dwujęzyczne używają IST w podobny sposób w obu swoich językach. Uczestnikami badania było 75 polsko-angielskich dzieci dwujęzycznych w wieku 4,5 – 7 lat mieszkających w Wielkiej Brytanii i grupa dobranych 75 polskich dzieci jednojęzycznych mieszkających w Polsce. Badano użycie terminów wyrażających stany wewnętrzne w dziecięcych opowiadaniach tworzonych na podstawie zestawu obrazków. Kodowano trzy rodzaje terminów: emocjonalne, mentalne i percepcyjne. Dzieci proszone były również o ponowne opowiedzenie historyjki od razu po wysłuchaniu wersji modelowej i o odpowiedzenie na pytania dotyczące rozumienia historyjki, które skupiały się na stanach wewnętrznych postaci. Tym sposobem badano efekt modelowania na użycie IST i porównano produkcję IST podczas opowiadania historyjki i w stosunkowo bardziej interakcyjnym kontekście rozmowy o stanach wewnętrznych. Dodatkowo mierzono zasób słownictwa dzieci, ich zdolności rozumienia struktur gramatycznych w obu językach, oraz refleksję nad myśleniem. Wyniki wskazały, że choć dzieci dwujęzyczne osiągają niższe wyniki w testach językowych od jednojęzycznych rówieśników, to obie grupy nie różnią się ilością IST użytych podczas opowiadania historyjki. Jednakże dzieci dwujęzyczne osiągnęły wyższe – niż dzieci jednojęzyczne – wyniki w teście teorii umysłu. Te dwie różnice w rozwoju dzieci mogły się zniwelować, prowadząc do braku różnic między grupami w ilości użytych IST. Ponadto, dzieci dwujęzyczne używały IST podobnie w obu swoich językach. Wyniki pokazały również, że prezentowanie dziecku historyjki modelowej i pytanie o stany wewnętrzne bohaterów uczula dzieci na wiedzę, przekonania i pragnienia postaci, co prowadzi do zwiększenia – względem opowiedzianych historyjek – użycia IST w ich ponownie opowiedzianych historyjkach oraz w odpowiedziach na pytania dot. rozumienia historyjki

USING EMOTIONS: BIOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL FACTORS INFLUENCING EMOTION UNDERSTANDING AND ANTISOCIALITY

People are guided by their emotions which in turn are a consequence of their understanding of others’ emotion expressions. Their skills to read and accurately identify others’ emotion expressions are a key ingredient for good emotion understanding. That is, accurate emotion identification can be considered as the first frontier of successful emotion understanding, and as the first step of a sequence which results in empathic responding. Impairment within this sequence might mean that the way people respond to their environment may not be appropriate or even cause harm to others. Children and adolescents with callous-unemotional traits have difficulties reading emotional cues correctly, specifically those cues which show others in distress. Such an impairment is thought to underlie a distinct pathway to severe and stable antisocial behaviour. Conventional methods of curbing the antisocial behaviour of children with high callous-unemotional traits such as punishment or time-out do not have the desired effect. Instead, this group of individuals seems to respond well to parental warmth and sensitive responding. Given that children start to learn early how to read and respond to emotions in an empathic manner through interactions, parents have a potential role by intervening early to foster good emotional and social skills even in children with high callous-unemotional traits. Study 1 tested whether adolescent boys with high callous-unemotional traits exhibit an impairment that is specific to distress cues such as fear, sadness or pain as difficulties to recognise such cues in others may impair typical inhibition to behave in an antisocial manner. In Study 2, it was expected that successful parental scaffolding is dependent on parent’s own emotion understanding skills, and therefore, study 2 investigated ways in which parents can scaffold emotion understanding in typically developing children, e.g. through talking about others’ emotion states and through engaging children in mutual eye gaze. Study 3 examined the impact that varying levels of child callous-unemotional traits have on parent-child interaction. Specifically, it was of interest whether children with high callous-unemotional traits are willing to engage with their parents on an emotional level permitting successful parental scaffolding. Parental understanding of emotions was tested in terms of promoting parental sensitive responsiveness. In sum, there are three main points the present thesis contributed: first, findings of Study 1 and 3 support a theory of emotion processing impairment that is not specific to fear or sadness, but describe a broader impairment of a failure to engage with the emotional environment and attend to salient emotional stimuli. Second, this thesis confirms the value of studying callous-unemotional traits in adolescents and young children as well as their parents. Third, findings of Studies 2 and 3 support the important role parents play in the lives of their children with callous-unemotional traits, specifically through their own emotion understanding