Social cognition

Template:Short description Template:For Template:Sidebar with collapsible lists Social cognition is a topic within psychology that focuses on how people process, store, and apply information about other people and social situations. It focuses on the role that cognitive processes play in social interactions.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

More technically, social cognition refers to how people deal with conspecifics (members of the same species) or even across species (such as pet) information, include four stages: encoding, storage, retrieval, and processing. In the area of social psychology, social cognition refers to a specific approach in which these processes are studied according to the methods of cognitive psychology and information processing theory. According to this view, social cognition is a level of analysis that aims to understand social psychological phenomena by investigating the cognitive processes that underlie them.<ref>(International Social Cognition Network: http://www.socialcognition.info)</ref> The major concerns of the approach are the processes involved in the perception, judgment, and memory of social stimuli; the effects of social and affective factors on information processing; and the behavioral and interpersonal consequences of cognitive processes. This level of analysis may be applied to any content area within social psychology, including research on intrapersonal, interpersonal, intragroup, and intergroup processes.

The term social cognition has been used in multiple areas in psychology and cognitive neuroscience, most often to refer to various social abilities disrupted in autism,<ref name="Striano">Template:Cite book</ref> schizophrenia<ref name="Billeke-Aboitiz-2013">Template:Cite journal</ref> and psychopathy.<ref name="BlairMitchellBlair">Template:Cite book</ref> In cognitive neuroscience the biological basis of social cognition is investigated.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Developmental psychologists study the development of social cognition abilities.<ref name="Shaffer">Template:Cite book</ref>

HistoryEdit

Social cognition came to prominence with the rise of cognitive psychology in the late 1960s and early 1970s and is now the dominant model and approach in mainstream social psychology.<ref name=Husain>Template:Cite book</ref> Common to social cognition theories is the idea that information is represented in the brain as "cognitive elements" such as schemas, attributions, or stereotypes. A focus on how these cognitive elements are processed is often employed. Social cognition therefore applies and extends many themes, theories, and paradigms from cognitive psychology that can be identified in reasoning (representativeness heuristic, base rate fallacy and confirmation bias), attention (automaticity and priming) and memory (schemas, primacy and recency). It is likely that social psychology has always had a more cognitive than general psychology approach, as it traditionally discussed internal mental states such as beliefs and desires when mainstream psychology was dominated by behaviorism.<ref name="Fiske">Template:Cite book</ref>

It has been suggested that other disciplines in social psychology such as social identity theory and social representations may be seeking to explain largely the same phenomena as social cognition, and that these different disciplines might be merged into a "coherent integrated whole".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> A parallel paradigm has arisen in the study of action, termed motor cognition, which is concerned with understanding the representation of action and the associated process.

DevelopmentEdit

According to the received view in cognitive sciences, the development of the human ability to process, store, and apply information about others begins in social learning at the onset of life. Very young organisms cognize social situations in social interaction with their caregivers when knowledge is developing yet limited. The essential question in studying Social cognition is how this ability appears and what neurophysiological processes underlie it in organisms in the sensorimotor stage of development with only simple reflexes which do not maintain bilateral communication. Professor Michael Tomasello introduced the psychological construct of shared intentionality to explain cognition beginning in the earlier developmental stage through unaware collaboration in mother-child dyads.<ref>Tomasello, M. (1999). The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 1999.</ref><ref>Tomasello, M. Becoming Human: A Theory of Ontogeny. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; 2019.</ref> Other researchers developed the notion, by observing this collaborative interaction from different perspectives, e.g., psychophysiology,<ref>Val Danilov I. & Mihailova S. (2023). "Empirical Evidence of Shared Intentionality: Towards Bioengineering Systems Development." OBM Neurobiology 2023; 7(2): 167; doi:10.21926/obm.neurobiol.2302167. https://www.lidsen.com/journals/neurobiology/neurobiology-07-02-167</ref><ref>McClung, J. S., Placì, S., Bangerter, A., Clément, F., & Bshary, R. (2017). "The language of cooperation: shared intentionality drives variation in helping as a function of group membership." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 284(1863), 20171682. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.1682.</ref><ref>Shteynberg, G., & Galinsky, A. D. (2011). "Implicit coordination: Sharing goals with similar others intensifies goal pursuit. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47(6), 1291-1294., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2011.04.012.</ref> and neurobiology.<ref>Fishburn, F. A., Murty, V. P., Hlutkowsky, C. O., MacGillivray, C. E., Bemis, L. M., Murphy, M. E., ... & Perlman, S. B. (2018). "Putting our heads together: interpersonal neural synchronization as a biological mechanism for shared intentionality." Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 13(8), 841-849.</ref>

Currently, only one hypothesis attempts to explain neurophysiological processes occurring during shared intentionality in all its integral complexity, from the level of interpersonal dynamics to interaction at the neuronal level.<ref name="Val Theory 2023">Val Danilov, I. (2023). "Theoretical Grounds of Shared Intentionality for Neuroscience in Developing Bioengineering Systems." OBM Neurobiology 2023; 7(1): 156; doi:10.21926/obm.neurobiol.2301156. https://www.lidsen.com/journals/neurobiology/neurobiology-07-01-156 .</ref><ref name="Val Modulation 2023">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Val Perception 2023">Val Danilov I. (2023). "Low-Frequency Oscillations for Nonlocal Neuronal Coupling in Shared Intentionality Before and After Birth: Toward the Origin of Perception." OBM Neurobiology 2023; 7(4): 192; doi:10.21926/obm.neurobiol.2304192.https://www.lidsen.com/journals/neurobiology/neurobiology-07-04-192</ref> By establishing the neurophysiological hypothesis of shared intentionality, Latvian Prof. Igor Val Danilov expanded the use of the term shared intentionality to include consideration of the interaction between an embryo and her mother.<ref name="Val Theory 2023" /> From this perspective, abilities to process, store, and apply information about others develop from the prenatal period. This insight continues the reflections of great thinkers (e.g., Kant) and leading child development theorists (beginning from Montessori and Vygotsky) about the beginning of cognition in interactions with the environment.<ref>OECD (2007). "Understanding the Brain: The Birth of a Learning Science." OECD Publishing. p. 165. ISBN 978-92-64-02913-2.</ref><ref>Chapter 2: The Montessori philosophy. From Lillard, P. P. Lillard (1972). Montessori: A Modern Approach. Schocken Books, New York.</ref> Based on experimental data from research on child behavior in the prenatal period,<ref>Castiello, U.; Becchio, C.; Zoia, S.; Nelini, C.; Sartori, L.; Blason, L.; D'Ottavio, G.; Bulgheroni, M.; Gallese, V. (2010). "Wired to be social: the ontogeny of human interaction." PloS one, 5(10), p.e13199.</ref><ref>Kisilevsky, B.C. (2016). "Fetal Auditory Processing: Implications for Language Development? Fetal Development." Research on Brain and Behavior, Environmental In uences, and Emerging Technologies,: 133-152.</ref><ref>Lee, G.Y.C.; Kisilevsky, B.S. (2014). "Fetuses respond to father’s voice but prefer mother’s voice after birth." Developmental Psychobiology, 56: 1-11.</ref><ref>Hepper, P.G.; Scott, D.; Shahidullah, S. (1993). "Newborn and fetal response to maternal voice." Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, 11: 147-153.</ref><ref>Lecanuet, J.P.; Granier‐Deferre, C.; Jacquet, A.Y.; Capponi, I.; Ledru, L. (1993). "Prenatal discrimination of a male and a female voice uttering the same sentence." Early development and parenting, 2(4): 217-228.</ref><ref>Hepper P. (2015). "Behavior during the prenatal period: Adaptive for development and survival." Child Development Perspectives, 9(1): 38-43. DOI: 10.1111/cdep.12104.</ref><ref>Jardri, R.; Houfflin-Debarge, V.; Delion, P.; Pruvo, J-P.; Thomas, P.; Pins, D. (2012). "Assessing fetal response to maternal speech using a noninvasive functional brain imaging technique." International Journal of Developmental Neuroscience, 2012, 30: 159–161. doi:10.1016/j.ijdevneu.2011.11.002.</ref> and advances in inter-brain neuroscience research,<ref name="pmid37563301">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="pmid34188170">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="pmid29292232">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="pmid28284802">Template:Cite journal</ref> this neurophysiological hypothesis introduced the notion of non-local neuronal coupling of the mother and fetus neuronal networks.<ref name="Val Theory 2023" /><ref name="Val Modulation 2023" /><ref name="Val Perception 2023" /> The notion of non-local neuronal coupling filled a gap in knowledge – both in the Core Knowledge Theory and the group of positions in Externalism – about the beginning of cognition, the gap that the binding problem has also shown.<ref name="Val Theory 2023" /><ref name="Val Modulation 2023" /><ref name="Val Perception 2023" /> This insight also shed light on neurophysiological processes that underlie the human ability to process, store, and apply information about other people and social situations beginning from the reflexes stage of development, when even aware goal-directed behavior is questioned. While exactly due to the ability of shared intentionality, very young babies express social behavior.<ref name="Val Theory 2023" /><ref name="Val Modulation 2023" /><ref name="Val Perception 2023" /> This ability manifests in recognizing and selectively responding to social stimuli. From this perspective, Social cognition contributes to cognitive development of newborns and even embryos when communication is still impossible.<ref name="Val Theory 2023" /> A development of the human ability to process, store, and apply information about others begins in the prenatal period.<ref name="Val Theory 2023" /><ref name="Val Modulation 2023" /><ref name="Val Perception 2023" />

Social schemasEdit

One theory of social cognition is social schema theory, although it is not the basis of all social cognition studies (for example, see attribution theory).<ref name="Fiske"/> Social schema theory builds on and uses terminology from schema theory in cognitive psychology, which describes how ideas or "concepts" are represented in the mind and how they are categorized. According to this view, when we see or think of a concept a mental representation or schema is "activated" bringing to mind other information which is linked to the original concept by association. This activation often happens unconsciously. As a result of activating such schemas, judgements are formed which go beyond the information actually available, since many of the associations the schema evokes extend outside the given information. This may influence social cognition and behaviour regardless of whether these judgements are accurate or not. <ref>Template:Cite book</ref> For example, if an individual is introduced as a teacher, then a "teacher schema" may be activated. Subsequently, we might associate this person with wisdom or authority, or past experiences of teachers that we remember and consider important.

When a schema is more accessible it can be more quickly activated and used in a particular situation. Two cognitive processes that increase accessibility of schemas are salience and priming. Salience is the degree to which a particular social object stands out relative to other social objects in a situation. The higher the salience of an object the more likely that schemas for that object will be made accessible. For example, if there is one female in a group of seven males, female gender schemas may be more accessible and influence the group's thinking and behavior toward the female group member.<ref name="Fiske"/> Priming refers to any experience immediately prior to a situation that causes a schema to be more accessible. For example, watching a scary movie late at night might increase the accessibility of frightening schemas, increasing the likelihood that a person will perceive shadows and background noises as potential threats.

Social cognition researchers are interested in how new information is integrated into pre-established schemas, especially when the information contrasts with the existing schema.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> For example, a student may have a pre-established schema that all teachers are assertive and bossy. After encountering a teacher who is timid and shy, a social cognition researcher might be interested in how the student will integrate this new information with his/her existing teacher schema. Pre-established schemas tend to guide attention to new information, as people selectively attend to information that is consistent with the schema and ignore information that is inconsistent. This is referred to as a confirmation bias. Sometimes inconsistent information is sub-categorized and stored away as a special case, leaving the original schema intact without any alterations. This is referred to as subtyping.

Social cognition researchers are also interested in the regulation of activated schemas. It is believed that the situational activation of schemas is automatic, meaning that it is outside individual conscious control.<ref>Nummenmaa, L.; Peets, K.; Salmivalli, C. (2008). "Automatic Activation of Adolescents' Peer-Relational Schemas: Evidence from Priming with Facial Identity." Child Development, 79(6), 1659.</ref> In many situations however, the schematic information that has been activated may be in conflict with the social norms of the situation in which case an individual is motivated to inhibit the influence of the schematic information on their thinking and social behavior.Template:Citation needed Whether a person will successfully regulate the application of the activated schemas is dependent on individual differences in self-regulatory ability and the presence of situational impairments to executive control.Template:Citation needed High self-regulatory ability and the lack of situational impairments on executive functioning increase the likelihood that individuals will successfully inhibit the influence of automatically activated schemas on their thinking and social behavior.Template:Citation needed When people stop suppressing the influence of the unwanted thoughts, a rebound effect can occur where the thought becomes hyper-accessible.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

CentralityEdit

Social cognition refers to the cognitive processes involved in perceiving, interpreting, and responding to social information. It plays a central role in human behavior and is critical for navigating social interactions and relationships. There are several examples that demonstrate the centrality of social cognition in human experience.

Perceiving faces everywhereEdit

Humans are highly attuned to detecting and recognizing faces, even in inanimate objects. This phenomenon, known as pareidolia, is thought to be an evolutionary adaptation that helps humans quickly identify potential threats and allies in their environment. Research has shown that the fusiform gyrus, a region of the brain involved in face processing, is particularly sensitive to perceiving faces in non-face objects.<ref>Boutsen, L., Humphreys, G. W., Praamstra, P., & Warbrick, T. (2006). "Comparing neural correlates of configural processing in faces and objects: An ERP study of the Thatcher illusion." Neuroimage, 32(1), 352-367. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.03.023</ref>

Point-light walkersEdit

Point-light walkers are animations of people walking that are created by attaching small lights to their joints and recording their movements in a dark room. Despite lacking details such as clothing or facial features, humans are able to accurately perceive the gender, emotion, and identity of the walker from these animations.<ref>Dunbar, R. I. M. (2008). "The social brain hypothesis." Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, 6(5), 178-190. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1520-6505(1998)6:5</ref> This ability highlights the importance of social cognition in recognizing and interpreting human movement and behavior.

Data on social-brain evolutionEdit

Research has shown that the evolution of the human brain is closely tied to the development of social cognition. The prefrontal cortex, a region of the brain involved in higher-level cognitive processes such as decision-making and social behavior, has undergone significant expansion in humans compared to other primates.<ref>Eisenberger, N. I.; Lieberman, M. D. (2004). "Why rejection hurts: a common neural alarm system for physical and social pain." Trends in cognitive sciences, 8(7), 294-300. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2004.05.010</ref> This expansion is thought to reflect the increased importance of social cognition in human evolution.

Pain of social exclusionEdit

Social exclusion is a powerful social stressor that can elicit emotional and physiological responses similar to physical pain.<ref>Johansson, G. (1973). "Visual perception of biological motion and a model for its analysis." Perception & Psychophysics, 14(2), 201-211.</ref> This response highlights the importance of social connections and acceptance for human well-being and underscores the centrality of social cognition in regulating social behavior.

Cultural differencesEdit

Social psychologists have become increasingly interested in the influence of culture on social cognition.<ref name= "Aronson">Template:Cite book</ref> Although people of all cultures use schemas to understand the world, the content of schemas has been found to differ for individuals based on their cultural upbringing. For example, one study interviewed a Scottish settler and a Bantu herdsman from Swaziland and compared their schemas about cattle.<ref name=Bartlett>Template:Cite book</ref> Because cattle are essential to the lifestyle of the Bantu people, the Bantu herdsman's schemas for cattle were far more extensive than the schemas of the Scottish settler. The Bantu herdsman was able to distinguish his cattle from dozens of others, while the Scottish settler was not.

Cultural influences have been found to shape some of the basic ways in which people automatically perceive and think about their environment.<ref name= "Aronson" /> For example, a number of studies have found that people who grow up in East Asian cultures such as China and Japan tend to develop holistic thinking styles, whereas people brought up in Western cultures like Australia and the USA tend to develop analytic thinking styles.<ref name= "Nisbett">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name = "Masuda 2006">Template:Cite journal</ref> The typically Eastern holistic thinking style is a type of thinking in which people focus on the overall context and the ways in which objects relate to each other.<ref name= "Nisbett" /> For example, if an Easterner was asked to judge how a classmate is feeling then he/she might scan everyone's face in the class, and then use this information to judge how the individual is feeling.<ref name = "Masuda 2008">Template:Cite journal</ref> On the other hand, the typically Western analytic thinking style is a type of thinking style in which people focus on individual objects and neglect to consider the surrounding context.<ref name= "Masuda 2006" /> For example, if a Westerner was asked to judge how a classmate is feeling, then he or she might focus only on the classmate's face in order to make the judgment.<ref name = "Masuda 2008" />

Nisbett (2003) suggested that cultural differences in social cognition may stem from the various philosophical traditions of the East (i.e. Confucianism and Buddhism) versus the Greek philosophical traditions (i.e. of Aristotle and Plato) of the West.<ref name= "Aronson" /> Other research indicates that differences in social cognition may originate from physical differences in the environments of the two cultures. One study found that scenes from Japanese cities were 'busier' than those in the US as they contain more objects which compete for attention. In this study, the Eastern holistic thinking style (and focus on the overall context) was attributed to the busier nature of the Japanese physical environment.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Later studies find that these differences in cognitive style can be explained by differences in relational mobility. Relational mobility is a measure of how much choice individuals have in terms of whom to form relationships with, including friendships, romantic partnerships, and work relations. Relational mobility is low in cultures with a subsistence economy that requires tight cooperation and coordination, such as farming, while it is high in cultures based on nomadic herding and in urban industrial cultures. A cross-cultural study found that the relational mobility is lowest in East Asian countries where rice farming is common, and highest in South American countries.<ref name="ThomsonEtAl2018">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="YukiSchug2012">Template:Cite book</ref>

These cultural influences might have also been results of the Chameleon Effect. The Chameleon Effect is when people unconsciously mimic the behaviors, gestures, and expressions of others. Chartrand and Bargh (1999) found that people favor those who were subtly mimicking them over those who weren’t; those who were mimicking others were more likely to be liked and have more friendly interactions with others. The intensity of the Chameleon Effect highly depends on the culture norm and what is seen as acceptable. In a culture promoting collectivism, which highly values group harmony and requires one to actively fit in, this subtle mimicking is more likely to occur as it is socially accepted. However, culture promoting individualism, which prioritizes independence over group harmony, mimicry might be less common or even seen as intrusive. Therefore, the intensity of the Chameleon Effect highly depends on the culture norm and what is seen as acceptable. <ref name="ChartrandBargh1999"> Template:Cite journal </ref>

Social cognitive neuroscienceEdit

Template:See also Early interest in the relationship between brain function and social cognition includes the case of Phineas Gage, whose behaviour was reported to have changed after an accident damaged one or both of his frontal lobes. More recent neuropsychological studies have shown that brain injuries disrupt social cognitive processes. For example, damage to the frontal lobes can affect emotional responses to social stimuli<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and performance on theory of mind tasks.<ref name=BaronCohen>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In the temporal lobe, damage to the fusiform gyrus can lead to the inability to recognize faces. Template:Citation needed

People with psychological disorders such as autism,<ref name="Striano"/><ref name="Subbaraju et al">Template:Cite journal</ref> psychosis,<ref name="Billeke-Aboitiz-2013"/><ref name="Fusar-Poli-2012">Template:Cite journal</ref> mood disorder,<ref name="Billeke-elal-2013">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD),<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Williams syndrome, antisocial personality disorder,<ref name=BlairMitchellBlair/> Fragile X, Turner's syndrome<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and ADHD<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> show differences in social behavior compared to their unaffected peers. Parents with PTSD show disturbances in at least one aspect of social cognition: namely, joint attention with their young children only after a laboratory-induced relational stressor as compared to healthy parents without PTSD.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> However, whether social cognition is underpinned by domain-specific neural mechanisms is still an open issue.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> There is now an expanding research field examining how such conditions may bias cognitive processes involved in social interaction, or conversely, how such biases may lead to the symptoms associated with the condition.

The development of social cognitive processes in infants and children has also been researched extensively (see developmental psychology). For example, it has been suggested that some aspects of psychological processes that promote social behavior (such as facial recognition) may be innate. Template:Citation needed Consistent with this, very young babies recognize and selectively respond to social stimuli such as the voice, face and scent of their mother.<ref>Template:Cite book.</ref> From the perspective of the shared intentionality hypothesis, social behavior of these organisms with simple reflexes emerges due to social cognition in social interaction with caregivers. Numerous hyper-scanning research studies in adults<ref name="pmid37563301" /><ref name="pmid34188170" /><ref name="pmid29292232" /><ref name="pmid28284802" /> and mother-child dyads<ref>Atilla, F.; Alimardani, M.; Kawamoto, T.; Hiraki, K. (2023). "Mother-child inter-brain synchrony during a mutual visual search task: A study of feedback valence and role." Social Neuroscience, 18:4, 232-244, DOI:10.1080/17470919.2023.2228545</ref> support the shared intentionality nature of social behavior in young children (see the section Development).

ReferencesEdit

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