This thesis aimed to investigate the proposal that mind-mindedness – a caregiver’s proclivity to treat their child as an individual with a mind of their own (Meins, 1997) – is a quality of close relationships, by assessing mind-mindedness (a) in caregiver–child dyads where the relationship has not spanned the child’s life, (b) in dyads where the relationship has been judged as dysfunctional, and (c) within an interactional context. Studies 1 and 2 showed that mind-mindedness was lower in adoptive parents (ns 89, 36) compared with biological parents (ns 54, 114); this group difference was independent of parental mental health and parents’ views on child development, and could not fully be explained in terms of children’s behavioural difficulties (Study 2). Study 3 showed that mind-mindedness was also lower in foster carers (n = 122), and biological parents whose children either were the subject of a child protection plan (n = 172) or had been taken into care (n = 92), compared with a community sample of biological parents (n = 128). The group differences were independent of parental mental health, children’s behavioural difficulties, and parents’ reported warmth and inductive reasoning. Study 4 developed and validated a new interaction-based assessment of mind-mindedness for use in the preschool years. The new interactional measure of mothers’ mind-mindedness in relation to their 44-month-olds (n = 151) was positively related to the established indices of mind-mindedness: appropriate mind-related comments in the first year of life and concurrent mind-minded child descriptions. Study 5 provided further validation of the new interactional measure by demonstrating its positive associations with known outcomes of mind-mindedness: children’s mentalising abilities at age 4. However, the new interactional measure did not mediate the relation between early mind-mindedness and children’s mentalising abilities. Collectively, the findings are in line with mind-mindedness being a relational construct.

Dehumanisation is a pervasive social phenomenon that has facilitated historical and modern examples of extreme violence, prejudice and discrimination. The perception that a person can be ‘less human’ than another person is typically applied to social outgroup members who are attributed with fewer uniquely human capacities compared to ingroup members. A significant amount of developmental research has examined the origins of intergroup bias among young children, however, investigation into the development of our tendency to dehumanise others has been relatively neglected. This is despite the fact that dehumanisation is closely linked to children’s social cognitive understanding (e.g., mental state inference) and behaviour (e.g., prosociality). The aim of my doctoral studies was to investigate the developmental origins of this phenomenon. The results of the empirical work in Chapters 2 and 3 revealed that 6-year-olds perceive outgroup faces to be physically less human than ingroup faces and that even younger children (5-year-olds) are less likely to reference the mental states of individuals belonging to a different group. The final experimental chapter (Chapter 4) explored the effects of encouraging children to mentalise about the behaviour of a perceived outgroup and showed that this technique is sufficient to increase empathic helping towards an outgroup member in need. The implications of this research for the nature of dehumanisation in development, as well as for children’s understanding of human and non-human agents, are discussed. Ultimately, further inquiry into how dehumanising biases emerge, and are potentially learnt, could contribute to strategies focused on improving intergroup relations.

Semantic retrieval extends beyond the here-and-now, to draw on abstract knowledge that has been extracted across multiple experiences; for instance, we can easily bring to mind what a dog looks and sounds like, even when a dog is not present in our environment. However, a clear understanding of the neural substrates that support patterns of semantic retrieval that are not immediately driven by stimuli in the environment is lacking. This thesis sought to investigate the neural basis of semantic retrieval within unimodal and heteromodal networks, whilst manipulating the availability of information in the environment. Much of the empirical work takes inspiration from modern accounts of transmodal regions (Lambon Ralph et al. 2017; Margulies et al. 2016), which suggest the anterior temporal lobe (ATL) and default mode network (DMN) support both abstraction and perceptual decoupling. The first empirical chapter examines whether words and experiences activate common neural substrates in sensory regions and where, within the ATLs, representations are transmodal. The second empirical chapter investigates how perceptually-decoupled forms of semantic retrieval in imagination are represented across unimodal and transmodal regions. The third empirical chapter interrogates whether transmodal regions respond in a similar manner to conceptually-guided and perceptually-decoupled cognition, and whether these two factors interact. The data suggests ventrolateral ATL processes both abstract modality-invariant semantic representations (Chapter 3) and decoupled semantic processing during imagination (Chapter 4). In addition, this thesis found comparable networks recruited for both conceptual processing and perceptually-decoupled retrieval corresponding to the broader DMN (Chapter 5). Further interrogation of these sites confirmed lateral MTG and bilateral angular gyrus were pivotal in the combination of conceptual retrieval from memory. Collectively, this data suggests that brain regions situated farthest from sensory input systems in both functional and connectivity space are required for the most abstract forms of cognition.

Adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are widely regarded to exhibit difficulties inferring the internal states of others; known as ‘mentalizing’. However, the existing literature is inconsistent regarding the nature of the mentalizing difficulties experienced by adults with ASD. Two neural systems; the mirror neuron system (MNS) and the mentalizing system, are both thought to play important roles in inferring others’ internal states from their actions but the precise roles of these systems and the nature of the interaction between them are unknown. The aim of this thesis was to explore the nature of mentalizing deficits associated with ASD, delineate between existing models of MNS involvement in mentalizing and identify the neural basis of mentalizing difficulties associated with ASD. The first empirical chapter presents two behavioural experiments which found adults with ASD were impaired at explicitly inferring the intentions of others from their actions. The second empirical chapter presents a transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) experiment which identified mentalizing-induced modulation of MNS activity, at the end of observed actions, in typically developing participants. The third empirical chapter presents an experiment which used TMS and electroencephalography (EEG) to measure MNS activation in adults with ASD when mentalizing and found higher levels of autistic traits predicted lower right-lateralised MNS activity. The final empirical chapter presents a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment which identified higher levels of autistic traits predicted reduced functional connectivity between the MNS and the mentalizing system. Collectively, these data suggest that connectivity between the MNS and the mentalizing system is higher when inferring intentions of others from their actions, the interaction between the two systems may be best conceptualised within a predictive coding framework and reduced connectivity between these systems may underlie the mentalizing difficulties adults with ASD experience.

Extensive research has shown that sleep supports memory. Newer work suggests that wakefulness can also benefit retention of new information. However, the exact mechanisms which govern memory consolidation in sleep and wake are largely unknown. The implementation of new technologies, which draw on these natural memory processes, allows some insight into their characteristics. This work aims at elucidating some aspects of memory consolidation processes in the realm of sleep and wake. Firstly, we train novel non-words, a material previously indicated to benefit from sleep-associated consolidation, with explicit and implicit methods to determine whether the implicit learning (via the Hebb repetition task) would facilitate lexical integration independently of sleep. The results reveal that lexical integration of novel words is contingent on a good level of explicit training, followed by a consolidation delay with sleep. We speculate that sleep-associated consolidation may be mediated by the degree of overlap between new and already known material. To further capitalise on these findings, we test whether applying non-verbal cues during sleep can improve learning of novel words and their integration within the lexicon using Targeted Memory Reactivation (TMR) paradigm. Our results indicate that reactivating novel lexical representations in sleep improves their consolidation and facilitates their recall. However, the lack of lexical integration observed suggests the need for future research. Finally, based on recent evidence that quiet wakeful rest can result in comparable memory increases to sleep, we explore the consolidation during awake state using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). We found that applying tDCS to the right occipital-parietal site enhances memory for a list of words as compared to no stimulation. The findings imply that memory consolidation during quiet wakefulness can be manipulated externally, which may direct future research. Nevertheless, the exact neuro-correlates of memory consolidation in quiet wake are yet to be fully investigated.

Concepts allow us to bring meaning to the world; they require the integration of information from across multiple episodes and events, and the abstraction of statistical patterns and regularities from both new and existing knowledge. Processes during consolidation have been shown to benefit the extraction of gist, the detection of hidden rules and the integration of memory elements into coherent representations. Consolidation may therefore play an important role in the development of conceptual memory. To explore this, we used a range of consolidation delay manipulations and two paradigms that assessed the development of concept-based representations. In Chapter 2 and 3 we used an abstract cross-modal information-integration categorisation task, which allowed us to investigate the integration of information from across modalities (visual and auditory) and the extraction of an underlying category structure. In these experiments we did not find any immediate consolidation benefits on categorisation performance. However, post-consolidation improvements in category learning were observed, if participants had a sleep-filled delay; suggesting that processes during sleep may enhance the effectiveness of future concept-based learning. In Chapters 4 and 5, we used an associative memory task that allowed us to dissociate the impact of consolidation on generalised concept-based representations from trained item knowledge. In this task we found sleep-associated improvements in memory; however, these were specific to trained-item knowledge, with no sleep-associated benefits in measures of memory generalisation. An investigation into intrinsic brain connectivity in Chapter 5 suggests that general variations in functional connectivity can in part explain individual differences in long-term memory performance; with decoupling between heteromodal and sensory-motor brain regions supporting memory generalisation and the formation of concepts. Our results provide new insights into the role of consolidation in the development of conceptual memory and highlight important directions for future research.

Functional outcomes of ongoing thought show both costs and benefits. Yet, the reason for its heterogeneity remains unclear. The executive failure and representational accounts stemmed from different psychological research approaches to understand ongoing thought. The executive failure account examines why changes in ongoing thought happen, while the representational account seeks to explain how humans generate ongoing thought. The attentional system and the default mode network are the common neural processes of both theoretical accounts, but interacting in a contradicting manner. The two accounts can be seen as competing theories of ongoing thought. However, in the family resemblance view (Seli et al., 2018), the two theoretical accounts potentially serve as two component processes of one phenomenon. One possible solution to this conflict could be that under different global neural configurations, the two networks support different cognitive functions. The thesis sets out to present evidence supporting of the family resemblance view and to begin research on the ontology of the component processes in ongoing thought. Neural cognitive hierarchy is the potential explanation of the heterogeneity. The current thesis adopts sparse canonical correlation analysis to incorporate the neural and behavioural aspects of ongoing thought. The data suggests ongoing thought is a collective phenomenon with many types of experience driven by the connectivity patterns in the default mode network. Each type of experience associated with their unique functional outcomes and neural hierarchies at the whole-brain level. Cognitive flexibility and the balance of segregation and integration between the transmodal systems and the rest of the cortex determines the immersive details. The current findings suggested the importance of whole-brain neural hierarchies to ongoing thought. The confirmation of these trait level findings at a state level are necessary to gain more insights into the architecture of the component processes.

Previous research has shown that deliberate disguise deteriorates human and automatic face recognition, with consequences for person identification in criminal situations. Common forms of deliberate disguise (e.g. balaclavas or hoodies) are easy to detect. When such disguises are used, viewer can distinguish between an unmasked individual - whose identity they knowingly can observe from facial appearance - and a masked individual - whose identity they knowingly cannot. Hyper-realistic silicone masks change this. Their recent use in criminal settings suggests that they effectively disguise identity and are difficult to detect. In this thesis, I first show that viewers are strikingly poor at distinguishing hyper-realistic masks from real faces under live and photographic test conditions, and are worse in other-race conditions. I also show large individual differences in discriminating realistic masks from real faces (5%-100% accuracy), and use an image analysis to isolate information that high performers use for effective categorisation. The analysis reveals an informative region directly below the eyes, which is used by high performers but not low performers. These findings point to selection and training as routes to improved mask detection. Second, I examine the reliability of estimates made of the person beneath the mask. Demographic profiling and social character estimates are poor, and results show that recognition rates were only just above chance, even for familiar viewers. This analysis highlights a systematic bias in these estimates: demographics, traits and social characteristics of the mask were attributed to those of the wearer. This bias has theoretical and applied consequences. First, it supports the automaticity with which viewers use a face to judge a person, even when they know the face is not that of the person. Second, it suggests that predictions of the person underneath the mask, by familiar and unfamiliar viewers alike, should be treated with great caution.

The binding of features into perceptual wholes is a well-established phenomenon, which has previously only been studied in the context of early vision and low-level features, such as color or proximity. This thesis investigates the hypothesis that a similar binding process, based on higher level information, could bind people into interacting groups, facilitating faster processing and enhanced memory of social situations. To investigate this possibility, a series of different experimental approaches explores grouping effects in displays involving interacting people. Experiments 1 & 2 use a visual search task and demonstrate more rapid processing for interacting (versus non-interacting) pairs in an odd-quadrant paradigm. Experiments 3 & 4, using a spatial judgment task, show that interacting individuals are remembered as physically closer than non-interacting individuals while retrieval times are decreased for interacting pairs. Experiments 5, 6 & 7 show that memory retention of group-relevant and irrelevant features is enhanced when recalling interacting partners in a surprise memory task. But such retrieval is disrupted when features are misattributed between interacting partners. Finally, Experiments 8, 9 & 10 further investigate the involvement of higher level cognitive processes in these effects. The observed results are consistent with the social binding hypothesis, and alternative explanations based on low level perceptual features and attentional cueing effects are ruled out. This thesis concludes that automatic mid-level grouping processes bind individuals into groups on the basis of their perceived interaction. Such Social Binding could provide the basis for more sophisticated social processing. Identifying the automatic encoding of social interactions in visual search, distortions of spatial working memory, and facilitated retrieval of object properties from longer-term memory, opens new approaches to studying social cognition with possible practical applications.

Children's reading comprehension difficulties can lead to lower performance at school and limited access to the curriculum. Reading may be a particular challenge for those children who are learning English as an additional language (EAL). While a number of studies have been conducted on the development of literacy in children, this research aimed to add to a growing avenue of investigation into the population of children learning EAL. The aim of this research project was an in depth examination of the language and literacy performance of the population of Polish children learning EAL in the UK school system both in their first and second language. The three hundred and nineteen children who were assessed in this study were sampled from three language backgrounds: Polish children learning EAL and two monolingual groups of Polish and English native speakers. The children were assessed with a range of standardised and bespoke tools assessing pre-literacy abilities, oral language, decoding, reading comprehension and higher level comprehension skills. This thesis benchmarked the performance of children learning EAL against their monolingual peers in both languages spoken, along with investigating the relationships between reading comprehension, decoding and language comprehension in this language pair and in comparison to their monolingual peers. Cross-language transfer both within and between language and literacy constructs was also investigated in the EAL group. Finally, the issue of low language performance in this group and the necessity of conducting assessment in both languages spoken by the EAL child were explored. The relevance of these findings for this group of EAL learners in the school setting as well as practical implications and future directions were also discussed.