Development of social cognition in the early years of life in the context of the child-mother relationship

Tese de doutoramento em Psicologia (área de conhecimento de Psicologia Clínica)The aim of this PhD is twofold: 1) To investigate whether infant joint attention at 10 months is developmentally linked to later social symbolic play abilities at 3 years of age, as both are thought to be milestones of social cognition; and 2) To explore individual, relational and contextual contributions to joint attention and social symbolic play. Method: Fifty-two infants were assessed at 10 months for joint attention (following and initiating joint attention behaviors) in interaction with their mothers. At 3 years of age, 49 children were reassessed, this time focusing on their social symbolic play abilities with an experimenter. Information regarding other relevant variables was also gathered at both ages. At 10 months infants’ expression of negative emotionality, temperament and developmental level were assessed. Data on mother-infant relationship quality, maternal bids for joint attention (entertaining, teaching and attention directing behaviors) and social-demographic features were also collected. At 3 years, we assessed children’s temperament, verbal and non-verbal abilities, as well mothers’ and children’s mental state talk in a shared pretend play interaction and maternal mind-mindedness is a short interview. Relevant social-demographic information was also collected. Results: At 10 months, following joint attention was exclusively predicted by total maternal bids for joint attention, although marginal associations were found with maternal entertaining and attention-directing behaviors (but not teaching strategies). Initiating joint attention was predicted by infants’ low expression of negative emotionality and the presence of older siblings, as well as marginally predicted by less maternal teaching behaviors. At age 3, children’s social symbolic play abilities were not significantly predicted by infant joint attention. Conversely, social symbolic play was significantly predicted by children’s verbal abilities and their use of desire references in a shared pretense interaction with their mothers. Finally, we also found specific associations between children’s references to desires and their social symbolic play, and between children’s references to cognitions and their general cognitive development. Conclusion: Findings highlight the importance of a multilevel approach to the study of social cognition through infancy to preschool years, one that encompasses not only individual variables, but also a variety of social influences.Este projecto de doutoramento tem dois objectivos principais: 1) Investigar se a atenção partilhada aos 10 meses está desenvolvimentalmente associada à competência simbólica social aos 3 anos de idade; e 2) Explorar os contributos individuais, relacionais e contextuais para a atenção partilhada e o jogo simbólico social. Método: Cinquenta e dois bebés foram avaliados aos 10 meses ao nível da atenção partilhada (comportamentos de seguir e iniciar atenção partilhada) com as suas mães. Aos 3 anos, 49 crianças foram reavaliadas ao nível do seu jogo simbólico social com um experimentador. Foi ainda recolhida informação adicional relevante nas duas idades. Aos 10 meses avaliámos a expressão de emocionalidade negativa, o temperamento e o nível de desenvolvimento dos bebés. Foram igualmente recolhidos dados acerca da qualidade da relação mãe-bebé, das estratégias maternas de atenção partilhada (comportamentos orientados para entreter, ensinar ou dirigir a atenção do bebé) e de características sócio-demográficas. Aos 3 anos avaliámos o temperamento e a capacidade verbal e não-verbal das crianças, assim como o uso de palavras mentais por parte da mãe e da criança no decurso de uma brincadeira de faz-de-conta, e a mind-mindedness materna numa pequena entrevista. Foram ainda recolhidos dados relativos a variáveis sócio-demográficas de relevância. Resultados: Aos 10 meses, apenas o total de estratégias maternas de atenção partilhada foi um preditor significativo do seguimento de atenção partilhada por parte do bebé. No entanto, encontrámos associações marginalmente significativas entre o seguir da atenção partilhada e as estratégias da mãe destinadas a entreter o bebé e a direccionar a sua atenção (mas não estratégias com o objectivo de lhe ensinar algo). O iniciar da atenção partilhada foi significativamente predito pela baixa expressão de emocionalidade negativa do bebé, pela presença de irmãos mais velhos, e marginalmente predito por menos comportamentos maternos com a intenção de ensinar algo ao bebé. Aos 3 anos, verificámos que a atenção partilhada na infância não era um preditor significativo das competências de jogo simbólico social. Em contraste, a capacidade verbal e o uso de palavras relativas a desejos por parte da criança foram preditores significativos do seu jogo simbólico social. Por último, encontrámos associações específicas entre as referências a desejos por parte da criança e o seu jogo simbólico social, e entre as referências a cognições e o seu desenvolvimento cognitivo global. Conclusão: Os dados sublinham a importância de uma abordagem multinível ao estudo da cognição social nos primeiros anos de vida, uma abordagem que englobe não apenas variáveis individuais, mas igualmente uma variedade de influências sociais.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) – SFRH/BD/27925/2006 suportado pelo Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior, no âmbito da QREN - POPH - Typologia 4.1 - Formação Avançada, reembolsados pelo Fundo Social Europeu e por fundos MSTH

Individual and relational contributions to parallel and joint attention in infancy

Objective: This study examined the contributions of maternal bids for joint attention, relationship quality, and infant characteristics, to individual differences in infants’ parallel and joint attention. Method: Fifty-two 10-month-olds and their mothers were assessed in order to investigate concurrent predictors of infant parallel attention, responding to joint attention, and initiating joint attention. Results: Parallel attention was predicted by infants’ higher mental development, low expression of negative emotionality, and maternal entertaining behaviors. Responding to joint attention was marginally predicted by total maternal bids for joint attention. Initiating joint attention was predicted by the infants’ low expression of negative emotionality, as well as marginally predicted by fewer maternal teaching behaviors. Conclusion: These results further the understanding of the factors influencing infant parallel as well as joint attention.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Child and mother mental-state talk in shared pretense as predictors of children's social symbolic play abilities at age 3.

This study investigated relations between mother and child (N = 49) mental-state talk during shared pretense and children’s social symbolic play at age 3. Social symbolic play was not related to mothers’ mental-state talk. In contrast, children’s own use of desire-state talk in shared pretense was a better predictor of social symbolic play than their general use of mental-state talk, even after accounting for general verbal ability as well as mothers’ use of desires terms. Conclusion: These results highlight for the first time a link between children’s references to desires and their performance on social symbolic play at age 3 years – a social cognitive ability thought to precede theory of mind.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Cognitive functioning in children and adults with Smith-Magenis syndrome

Smith-Magenis Syndrome (SMS) is a genetic neurodevelopmental disorder caused by a microdeletion on chromosome 17p11.2. This syndrome is characterized by a distinctive profile of physical, medical and neuropsychological characteristics. The latter include general mental disability, with the majority of individuals falling within the mild to moderate range. This study reports a detailed cognitive assessment of children and adults with SMS with the use of the Wechsler intelligence scales at three distinct levels of analysis: full scale IQ, factorial indices, and subtests. Child and adult samples were each compared to samples of age and gender-matched typically developing individuals. To our knowledge, this is the first study to systematically analyse the cognitive profile of individuals with SMS in Southern Europe. The present study confirmed mental disability, particularly within the moderate category, as a consistent feature of children and adults with SMS. Furthermore, both child and adult samples evidenced significant impairments in all four indices when compared with their typically developing counterparts. A specific pattern of strengths and weaknesses was discernible for both samples, with Verbal Comprehension emerging as a relative strength, whereas Working Memory appeared as a relative weakness. Finally, with the exception of two subtests in the perceptual domain, we found no evidence for a general cognitive decline with age.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (PTDC/PSI-PCL/115316/2009); Fundación Alicia Koplowitz (5th Call for grants for Research in Childhood and Adolescent Psychiatry Early Neurodegenerative Diseases

How executive functions are related to intelligence in Williams syndrome

Williams syndrome is characterized by impairments in executive functions (EFs). However, it remains unknown how distinct types of EFs relate to intelligence in this syndrome. The present study analyzed performance on working memory, inhibiting and shifting, and its links to IQ in a sample of 17 individuals with WS, and compared them with a group of 17 typically developing individuals matched on chronological age and gender. In conclusion, our results suggest that working memory, inhibiting, and shifting relate differently to intelligence in WS as well as in typical development, with working memory being the EF most closely related to intelligence in both groups. Notably, the magnitude of the associations between the three EFs and IQ was substantially higher in the WS group than in the TD group, bringing further confirmation to the notion that frontal lobe impairments may produce a general compromise of several EFsPortuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) (grantPTDC/PSI-PCL/115316/ 2009) and by Fundación Alicia Koplowitz(5thCall for Grants for Research in Childhood and Adolescent Psychiatry Early Neurodegenerative Diseases

A psicologia como neurociência cognitiva : implicações para a compreensão dos processos básicos e suas aplicações

O presente artigo procura ilustrar o modo como os desenvolvimentos das neurociências cognitivas poderão ajudar a compreender alguns dos processos psicológicos básicos e, simultaneamente, ser traduzidos para importantes domínios da psicologia aplicada, particularmente no domínio clínico. Exemplificaremos a partir de algumas linhas de investigação programática em curso nas diferentes subsecções do Laboratório de Neuropsicofisiologia da Escola de Psicologia da Universidade do Minho. As potencialidades metodológicas proporcionadas pela neurofisiologia, neuroimagiologia, neuromodelação, psicofisiologia, neurobioquímica e neurogenética serão exemplificadas nas suas aplicações à linguagem (e suas implicações para a compreensão da esquizofrenia), funcionamento sócio-cognitivo (e implicações para a compreensão das perturbações do neurodesenvolvimento), funcionamento executivo (com implicações para a compreensão das perturbações do espectro obsessivo), empatia (e implicações para a compreensão da psicoterapia), mecanismos de stress (com implicações para a compreensão das perturbações de ansiedade), e, finalmente, comportamento animal (com implicações para o conhecimento dos sistemas sensoriais e perceptuais).(undefined

Concrete and relational vocabulary: comparison between Williams and Smith-Magenis syndromes

We compared the performance of two clinical groups, Williams syndrome (WS) and Smith-Magenis syndrome (SMS), in terms of concrete and relational vocabulary. We analyzed (a) whether the WS group had an advantage in concrete vocabulary when compared to the SMS group, as good concrete vocabulary knowledge is considered a hallmark of WS; (b) if spatial processing difficulties in WS would be reflected specifically in their knowledge of relational spatial vocabulary; (c) if a specific vocabulary profile could be outlined for SMS.Our results show similar performances on receptive concrete and relational vocabulary in both groups. However, and as anticipated, performance on relational space concepts was significantly lower in the WS group

Joint attention at 10 months of age in infant–mother dyads: contrasting free toy-play with semi-structured toy-play

Fifty-two 10-month-olds and their mothers were observed in free toy-play and semi-structured toy-play for assessing joint attention capabilities. Mothers exhibited more bids for joint attention during semi-structured toy-play. Infants' response to maternal behaviors and their bids for initiating joint attention were higher during free toy-play.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Methodologies for assessing the development of social cognition from infancy to preschool

Nas últimas décadas, a Psicologia do Desenvolvimento tem vindo a delinear o percurso do desenvolvimento sócio-cognitivo na procura de respostas a uma questão essencial – Como evoluem as capacidades de mentalização das crianças? O interesse em conhecer as fases que marcam o desenvolvimento da cognição social, desde as idades mais precoces até à consolidação da compreensão das causas psicológicas dos comportamentos, é legitimado pela importância vital com que estas fases se revestem ao nível da compreensão e comportamento sociais. Neste sentido, os objectivos do presente trabalho são: (a) descrever os três marcos sócio-cognitivos comummente descritos na literatura desde a infância até à idade pré-escolar; (b) apresentar exemplos de metodologias que permitam a sua avaliação (c) analisar as principais vantagens e desvantagens de cada uma das metodologias de forma a auxiliar a selecção por parte dos investigadores.Over the last few decades, research on social cognition has thrived to a great extent and much of its focus has been devoted to how children come to understand the human mind. The importance of addressing the unique developmental changes that occur in the early years of life is related to the vast impact of social cognition on everyday social understanding and action. In this sense, the goals of this work are: (a) to provide a brief theoretical overview of three classical social-cognitive milestones from infancy to the preschool years; (b) to provide examples of assessment methodologies for these developmental milestones; and (c) to compare and contrast each methodology so as to assist researchers in their selection.(undefined)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Duration of face mask exposure matters: evidence from Swiss and Brazilian kindergartners' ability to recognise emotions.

Wearing facial masks became a common practice worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study investigated (1) whether facial masks that cover adult faces affect 4- to 6-year-old children's recognition of emotions in those faces and (2) whether the duration of children's exposure to masks is associated with emotion recognition. We tested children from Switzerland (N = 38) and Brazil (N = 41). Brazil represented longer mask exposure due to a stricter mandate during COVID-19. Children had to choose a face displaying a specific emotion (happy, angry, or sad) when the face wore either no cover, a facial mask, or sunglasses. The longer hours of mask exposure were associated with better emotion recognition. Controlling for the hours of exposure, children were less likely to recognise emotions in partially hideen faces. Moreover, Brazilian children were more accurate in recognising happy faces than Swiss children. Overall, facial masks may negatively impact children's emotion recognition. However, prolonged exposure appears to buffer the lack of facial cues from the nose and mouth. In conclusion, restricting facial cues due to masks may impair kindergarten children's emotion recognition in the short run. However, it may facilitate their broader reading of facial emotional cues in the long run