Chapter 8: Core Knowledge Part II: Face Perception, Animacy Perception, and

Theory of Mind

Chapter Summary

In this chapter you will read about the specialized adaptations designed for social
cognition that develop in infants and children. First, you will read that social cognition
is one of the core domains of development. Humans have, apparently, evolved
sophisticated social cognitive skills as a result of the intense social demands
that our ancestors faced in the EEA. Social interactions, intimate long-term
relationships, competition, and negotiations led to the evolution of a new kind
of intelligence. Humans are an obligate social species: In the EEA, an individual
could not have survived alone, and the legacy of this history is a mandatory
social cognition. Psychologically, we need others and will create companions via
hallucination if necessary.
You will also read that early in development infants and children develop improbably
sophisticated social cognitive skills. In the first year, infants look at faces and eyes
and use adults’ eye directions to direct their own attention. By late in the first year,
young children can appreciate and use other people’s mental states, as evidenced
by imitation, joint attention, social referencing, and pretend play. And evidence
suggests that the perceptual processing of faces is unlike any other kind of visual
processing. Instinct blindness makes these infantile skills seem easy, but they are
computationally sophisticated nonetheless.
Next, you will read about infants’ abilities to perceive animacy and intentions.
Based on nothing but motion cues, infants are able to attribute animacy to simple
objects and even to see them as helpful or harmful. Infants know when a person is
behaving in a goal-directed manner. These skills are precursors to a child’s maturing
theory of mind: the ability to use another person’s mental states to explain and
predict other people’s behaviours.
Finally, you will read about children developing with autism and the profoundly
different way that social cognition develops in these children. Deficits in the
development of theory of mind is characteristic of autism, and children with
autism show deficits in joint attention, social referencing, pretend play, and the
perception of intentionality. The fact that these skills are all delayed or absent
in these children is consistent with the idea that these are all components of a
developing theory of mind.

Learning Objectives

 This chapter expands on the idea of core knowledge introduced in Chapter 7 and focusses
on research that reveals that humans have a psychology specialized for processing social
information.
 First, you will learn why social knowledge is core knowledge for humans. You will read
about pressures in our evolutionary past that made social information processing
imperative. You will learn about the social brain hypothesis and read evidence in support of
this hypothesis.
  You will then read about Piaget’s thoughts on social development. You will learn about the
research he did regarding children’s perspective-taking. You will learn how Piaget’s view of
early social development was consistent with his stage theory. You will also read about
Harry Harlow’s early work with rhesus monkeys that suggested that social contact is a
compelling need, even when other physical needs are being met.
 You will then learn about early developing social cognitive skills in infants. Infants are
attracted to social information very early in life. You will also learn about important social
cognitive skills that develop in the first year of life, such as joint attention and social
referencing. You will read about pretend play and learn that it requires specialized cognitive
machinery to understand others’ minds.
 Then, you will explore face processing. You will learn that faces are special: The visual
system processes faces like no other objects. A special brain area is even devoted to face
perception. You will learn about research, including research about the inversion effect and
holistic processing, that shows how faces are processed uniquely.
 The chapter then deals with animacy and intentionality perception in infants and young
children. An understanding of animacy is a very early developing social cognitive skill. You
will read evidence that young infants appreciate animacy and even perceive intentions
while looking at very simple displays of geometric figures. You will also read evidence of the
development of intentionality perception into childhood.
 You will then read about a vibrant field of research regarding theory of mind development.
Children perceive other people’s mental states (beliefs, desires, etc.) and use these mental
states to explain and predict behaviour. You will learn about some classic research that
shows that children use others’ perceived beliefs to predict what they will do, and you will
read what scientists think about how the theory of mind process develops.
 In the final section of this chapter you will read about autism as an example of the
development of children who do not have typical social cognitive and social perceptual
skills.

Key Concepts

 autism, 231
 ecological pressures, 211
 egocentrism, 215
 fusiform face area, 222
 holistic processing, 222
 inversion effect, 222
 joint attention, 219
 obligate social species, 208
 perceptual narrowing, 224
 pretend play, 220
 sensorimotor play, 220
 social brain hypothesis, 212
 social referencing, 220
 theory of mind, 211
  U-shaped curve, 223

Review Questions

1. The fact that humans have co-evolved adaptations that are appropriate to solve adaptive
problems on multiple sides of a relationship reflects our status as

a. a coercive social species.

b. an obligate social species.
c. an induced social species.
d. an observant social species

2. Harlow found that self-mutilation, catatonia, emotional disturbances, and even death were all
potential outcomes when monkeys

a. were not given adequate access to food and water.

b. were subjected to neglect and abuse from their mother.
c. were not kept clean.
d. were raised in partial or total isolation.

3. The social brain hypothesis is supported by the fact that

a. humans are most adept at interacting with about 50 people.

b. humans face greater environmental obstacles than other primates.
c. social problems decline as group size increases.
d. humans congregate in groups far larger than other ape groups.

4. Piaget’s notion of ‘animism’ refers to

a. being unable to consider views other than your own.

b. a preference for animals over objects.
c. the attribution of physical characteristics to mental entities.
d. the attribution of mental states to inanimate objects.

5. Social learning theory emphasizes

a. classical conditioning.
b. observation and imitation.
c. rewards and punishments.
d. individual personalities.

6. The difference between sensorimotor play and pretend play is that pretend play

a. occurs earlier than sensorimotor play.

b. involves creating imaginative representations.
c. involves object manipulation.
d. is primarily a means for mastering action sequences.
7. Holistic processing of faces refers to the fact that we

a. see faces as a sum of their component parts.

b. tend to notice only the top half of a face.
c. see faces as a gestalt.
d. perform well on a composite face task.

8. The process of perceptual mechanisms becoming more specialized is called

a. perceptual focusing.
b. perceptual restriction.
c. perceptual narrowing.
d. perceptual contouring.

9. The mechanism proposed by Baron-Cohen that interprets movements in terms of volitional

mental states is called

a. a goal detector
b. a movement predictor.
c. a predictability mechanism.
d. an intentionality detector.

10. ASD stands for

a. Autistic Symptoms of Disorder

b. Autism Scale of Deficits
c. Autism Specialization Deficits
d. Autism Spectrum Disorder

Answer Key

1. b (p. 256)
2. d (pp. 258–259)
3. d (p. 261)
4. d (p. 266)
5. b (p. 267)
6. b (pp. 271–272)
7. c (p. 274)
8. c (p. 278)
9. d (p. 279)
10. d (p. 287)