Combining techniques from Solution-Oriented Therapy and Vygotsky's theory of cognitive development, this study examines young children's abilities to respond to certain solution-oriented techniques. Developmentally, young children (ages up to five years) may have difficulty responding to abstract questions,. such as questions designed to generate solutions. According to Vygotsky's theory of cognitive development, children can be aided to understand more developmentally complicated concepts through a process called "scaffolding" (Wood, Bruner, & Ross, 1976). Adults or peers can provide scaffolding in the form of questions, clues, prompts, or modeling. Supplementing complex ideas with concrete objects can also aid the scaffolding process. In this qualitative study, five five-year-olds were interviewed using solution-focused questions and scaling questions based upon solution-oriented techniques. These techniques aid the search for solutions and the person's awareness of resources. Concrete props and questions were the primary scaffolding techniques employed. Results of this study suggest that young children are able to respond to the solution-oriented techniques used in this study and are able to generate a variety of potential solutions. Common resources the children recognize include words, ways of sharing, adults, toys, and friends/siblings. An awareness of individual differences is naturally important when interacting with children, as they each have unique experiences and resources. Because of the individual differences and the small sample size, these results have limited generalizability. Suggestions for future research are included. In addition, recommendations for other developmentally appropriate methods of adapting solution-oriented techniques when working with young children, primarily through play and stories, are proposed. / Master of Science

Yes / Evidence has shown that older adults have lower accuracy in Theory-of-Mind (ToM) tasks compared to young adults, but we are still unclear whether the difficulty in decoding mental states in older adults stems from not looking at the critical areas, and more so from the ageing Asian population. Most ToM studies use static images or short vignettes to measure ToM but these stimuli are dissimilar to everyday social interactions. We investigated this question using a dynamic task that measured both accuracy and error types, and examined the links between accuracy and error types to eye gaze fixation at critical areas (e.g. eyes, mouth, body). A total of 82 participants (38 older, 44 young adults) completed the Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition task on the eye tracker. Results showed that older adults had a lower overall accuracy with more errors in the ipo-ToM (under-mentalising) and no-ToM (lack of mentalisation) conditions compared to young adults. We analysed the eye gaze data using principal components analysis and found that increasing age and looking less at the face were related to lower MASC accuracy in our participants. Our findings suggest that ageing deficits in ToM are linked to a visual attention deficit specific to the perception of socially relevant nonverbal cues. / This study was funded by the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (FRGS/1/2016/SS05/SYUC/03/2) awarded to M.H.Y.

Tidigare forskning har kopplat låga och höga nivåer av mentalisering till diverse psykiatriska diagnoser. Dock har det inte studerats i lika stor grad om höga nivåer av mentalisering kan bero på faktorer som inte är patologiska, som personlighetsdraget neuroticism. Att undersöka om det finns icke-patologiska förklaringar till högre nivåer av mentalisering kan vara viktig kunskap som kan användas vid utformandet av effektiv behandling för människor med diagnoser där höga nivåer av förmågan förekommer. Denna studie undersökte om högre nivåer av neuroticism bidrar till högre nivåer av mentalisering hos vuxna. Forskningsfrågan var: Finns det ett samband mellan högre nivåer av neuroticism och högre nivåer av mentalisering? Urvalet bestod av 66 deltagare över 18 år. Jag samlade in data genom en webbenkät som bestod av skalorna EPQ-R och MentS som mätte neuroticism respektive mentalisering. Jag analyserade datan via en hierarkisk regressionsanalys, en korrelationsanalys och ett oberoende t-test. Resultatet visade att neuroticism inte hade ett samband med mentalisering. Sambandet förändrades heller inte när jag kontrollerade för kön och ålder. Att höga nivåer av neuroticism inte bidrog till att man mentaliserade mer kan eventuellt förklaras av att nivåerna av neuroticism inte var särskilt höga i urvalet samt storleken på urvalet. Mer forskning behövs via ett större urval med högre nivåer av neuroticism. / Previous studies have connected low and high levels of mentalization to various psychiatric diagnoses. However, there have been fewer studies examining whether high levels of mentalization are related to factors that are not pathological, such as the personality trait neuroticism. Examining whether there are non-pathological explanations to high levels of mentalization can be important knowledge that is useful when designing effective treatment aimed for people with diagnoses where high levels of the ability occur. This study examined whether higher levels of neuroticism contribute to higher levels of mentalization among adults. The research question was: Is there a relationship between higher levels of neuroticism and higher levels of mentalization? The sample consisted of 66 people aged 18 and above. I collected data through a web survey that consisted of the scales EPQ-R and MentS which measured neuroticism and mentalization respectively. I analyzed the data by using a hierarchical regression, a correlation analysis and an independent samples t test. The results showed that there was no relationship between neuroticism and mentalization. Neither did the relationship change when I controlled for gender and age. The fact that higher levels of neuroticism did not contribute to higher levels of mentalization could potentially be explained by the levels of neuroticism within the sample not being particularly high and the size of the sample. More studies are needed with a larger sample and where the levels of neuroticism are higher.

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In what ways and under what circumstances can a movie be a resource for individuals and their thoughts about existential matters? This central research question has been investigated using a both quantitative and qualitative approach. First, a questionnaire was distributed amongst 179 Swedish students to provide a preliminary overview of film habits. The questionnaire was also used as a tool for selecting respondents to individual interviews. Second, thirteen interviews were conducted, with viewers choosing their favourite movie of all time. In the study socio-cognitive theory and a schema-based theoretical tool is adopted to analyze how different viewers make use of movies as cultural products in an interplay between culture and cognition in three contexts; a socio-historic process, a socio-cultural interaction with the world and inner psychological processes. Summarizing the interviews some existential matters dominated. Matters of immanent orientation were in the foreground. Transcendental questions received much less attention. Summarizing the schema-based theoretical question, assessing which cognitive schema structures the narratives were processed through, the study found an emphasis on a combination of two main cognitive structures, person schema and self schema. Detailed person schematic cognitive processes about fictitious characters on the screen and their role model behaviour were combined by the respondents with dynamic cross-references to detailed self schematic introspections about their own characteristics, related to existential matters at some very specific moments in their lives. The viewers in the study seem to be inspired by movies as a mediated cultural resource, promoting the development of a personal moral framework with references to values deeply fostered by a humanistic tradition. It is argued that these findings support theories discussing individualised meaning making, developing ‘self-expression values’ and ‘altruistic individualism’ in contemporary western society.

Child and adolescent mood and anxiety symptoms are common and debilitating, with long-term effects on well-being. Research presented in this thesis examines interpersonal cognitive factors in the emergence of anxious and depressive symptoms in late childhood through to early adulthood. The thesis considers this issue using three main approaches. For the first, data are presented showing that biases in the appraisals of social situations are the aspects of interpersonal cognition most closely associated with emotional symptoms. For the second, longitudinal twin data are used to examine genetic and environmental origins of these interpersonal cognitive biases and their temporal prediction of symptoms across a 2-year period. Data show that interpersonal cognitive factors are strongly influenced by non-shared environmental factors, and moreover, predict symptoms across time. The final section of the thesis comprises four studies using Cognitive Bias Modification of Interpretations (CBM-I) training methodology to show that both positive and negative interpretive biases for interpersonal information can be induced in adolescents. Positive biases are shown to persist for at least 24 hours after training, and induced positive and negative biases are shown to differentially predict anxious responses to an experimental stressor. Evidence is also provided to suggest that effects following training positive interpretive biases may transfer to other cognitive measures, namely appraisals of ambiguous emotional faces. Finally, data tentatively show that CBM-I training may be useful in reducing negative interpretations of interpersonal information made by 11-year-old children undergoing the transition to secondary school. In summary, studies in this thesis support the contribution of cognitive biases to mood and anxiety symptoms in childhood and adolescence. They further extend this knowledge by suggesting that these reflect individual-specific (non-shared) environmental risks to predict symptoms across time. These biases may also be amenable to change through training interventions, with some - albeit weak - effects on other cognitive outcomes.

Behaviour is guided by accumulated experience, valuation and comparison. While many aspects associated with these functions are mediated by the frontal lobes, the precise contribution from particular regions remains debated. This thesis will deal with how an organism comes to select an option and will specifically focus on the role of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in two mechanisms in this process: learning of outcome specificities and selecting between multiple options based on their expected values. Despite evidence emphasizing anatomical and connective heterogeneity within this structure, the OFC is often regarded as a uniform region. This thesis aims to resolve some of this uncertainty by assuming that the medial and lateral regions of the OFC contribute differentially to learning and decision-making. Two distinct methodologies were used in these investigations. First, the contribution of the medial OFC to social and emotional processing was examined. The findings from this study disprove previously held beliefs that the medial regions of the OFC guide social and emotional behaviours, but indicted a role for this region in value-guided decision-making. The second study examined functional differences between the lateral and medial OFC by making circumscribed lesions to either region in macaque monkeys. The animals performed a number of 3-armed bandit tasks which were designed to investigate different aspects of value assignment and comparison. The results show that while lateral OFC was required for "credit assignment" – the correct assignment of values to visual cues – medial OFC was critical for comparison of the cues' values during decision-making. In unchanging probabilistic environments, mOFC lesions induced decision-making impairments when value comparison was difficult without affecting credit assignment and associative learning. By contrast, lateral OFC lesions caused the opposite pattern of impairment. The final study used human-neuroimaging techniques to investigate the differential representation of outcome-specific contingency learning and found not only that the expectation of a unique outcome facilitated learning and memory recall but that this was supported by a neural network which included the lateral regions of the OFC and the anterior cingulate cortex. Activity in the mOFC did not correlate with outcome-specific contingency learning but instead reflected both the value associated with the receipt and expectation of a reward. Taken together, the results from this thesis suggest that specific parts of the OFC make markedly different contributions to these very different cognitive functions.

Cette recherche s’inscrit dans le cadre de l’élaboration d’espaces numériques d’interaction tactile, en tant qu’ils sont rendus possibles par la connexion en réseau d’un dispositif de suppléance perceptive. Dans ce contexte, nous avons articulé une recherche appliquée, centrée sur les analyses d’usage du dispositif dans des contextes écologiques, à une recherche fondamentale, dirigée par les questions théoriques soulevées par les usages eux-mêmes.Pour cela, la méthodologie minimaliste nous offre une occasion originale d’étudier la constitution même des rencontres interpersonnelles, à travers un espace de couplage sensorimoteur inédit. Nos résultats généraux suggèrent que le processus de l’interaction est une dynamique relationnelle autonome qui émerge de l’engagement mutuel des participants. Dans une approche énactive et interactionniste de la cognition sociale, il s’agit alors de considérer que le croisement perceptif entre deux sujets, même réduit à son expression la plus simple, consiste en la rencontre de deux activités perceptives construisant du sens. Dans le contexte de rencontres strictement dyadiques, nous tentons de caractériser cette dynamique, de façon à en isoler les éléments constitutifs. Nous montrons alors que la coordination interpersonnelle résulte d’un processus actif de co-ajustements dynamiques qui se joue autant à un niveau microscopique (qualité de l’accroche perceptive) qu’à un niveau macroscopique (organisation de séquences d’interaction). Dans le contexte de l’exploration mutuelle d’un contenu numérique, nous montrons que cette dynamique d’interaction permet aux participants de faire sens de leurs engagements respectifs en fonction des objets présents. La coordination des activités perceptives se présente alors comme le support de la co-constitution d’un monde partagé de significations, à travers une compréhension interpersonnelle ancrée dans un contexte pragmatique. En outre, l’articulation des expérimentations et des analyses d’usage écologiques nous a conduits à proposer des spécifications techniques et fonctionnelles pour les espaces numériques partagés, de façon à proposer un dispositif pertinent pour les utilisateurs déficients visuels. / Our research is part of the design of tactile interaction digital spaces, as they are made possible by a network connection between perceptual supplementation devices. Within this framework, we articulated an applied research, focused on the analysis of use of the device in ecological contexts, with a fundamental one, led by theoretical issues raised by the usage itself. In this respect, minimalist methodology gives us an opportunity to study the very constitution of interpersonal encounters, through a new space of sensorimotor coupling for users.Our overall results suggest that interaction process is an autonomous relational dynamics that emerges from the mutual engagement of participants. Within an enactive and interactionist approach of social cognition, we consider that this perceptual crossing, even when reduced to its simplest expression, involves the meeting of two perceptual activities which inherently produce sense. In the context of strictly dyadic encounters, we try to characterize this dynamic, so as to isolate its fundamental features. We show that interpersonal coordination results from an active process of dynamic co-adjustments that unfolds both on a microscopic level (quality of the perceptual coupling) and on a macroscopic level (organization of interaction sequences). In the case of mutual exploration of digital content, we show that this dynamic interaction allows participants to make sense of their respective engagement relatively to the present objects. The coordination of perceptual activities is then presented as a support for the co-constitution of a shared world of meanings, from an interpersonal understanding rooted in a pragmatic context.In addition, these experiments, coupled to ecological usage analysis, have led us to propose technical and functional specifications for shared digital spaces, so as to provide a relevant device for visually impaired users.

Le monde social est par essence fortement incertain, dans la mesure où les informations peuvent varier rapidement et de façon imprévisible, et il est essentiel de pouvoir s’y adapter. Les personnes avec autisme présentent souvent une intolérance au changement et une recherche d’immuabilité, associées à des difficultés dans le domaine de la prise de décision. Elles rapportent également que leurs difficultés sont amplifiées lorsque la prise de décision implique un changement de routine et lorsqu’elle fait entrer en jeu une composante sociale. Si la prise de décision dans un environnement social a été beaucoup explorée, l’influence de l’incertitude du contexte (c’est-à-dire d’un changement brutal des probabilités de survenue d’un événement) et son interaction avec la nature sociale de l’environnement n’ont jamais été étudiées dans le cadre de l’autisme. Cette thèse vise à mieux comprendre les spécificités du traitement du caractère imprévisible du contexte chez les personnes autistes de haut niveau (High-Functioning Autism : HFA) et avec un Syndrome d’Asperger (AS). La question posée ici est de savoir si c’est l’aspect social, ou bien l’aspect imprévisible, qui pose problème aux personnes avec autisme dans les interactions sociales. Nous avons fait l’hypothèse d’une altération du traitement du caractère imprévisible chez ces personnes, comparées à des sujets neurotypiques appariés, et nous souhaitions préciser l’influence de la nature sociale ou non-sociale de la source d’information sur cette altération. Dans la première étude, comportementale, de cette thèse, nous avons adapté une tâche de prise de décision de Behrens et al. (2007, 2008), comportant une condition stable et une condition instable (i.e. incertaine), cet aspect stable ou instable pouvant venir d’un indice social ou non-social. Cette première étude a permis de montrer que, dans notre tâche, les difficultés rencontrées par les personnes HFA/AS dans un environnement social tiennent plus à son caractère imprévisible qu’à son aspect social. A cela s’ajoute une difficulté globale à intégrer les indices contextuels dans la prise de décision. Notre deuxième étude, en IRM fonctionnelle, visait à identifier les régions cérébrales impliquées dans le traitement du caractère imprévisible du contexte, ainsi que l’effet de la nature sociale de l’environnement sur ce traitement, chez des personnes avec autisme. Cette seconde étude a montré que les personnes HFA/AS mobilisent moins le réseau attentionnel fronto-pariétal que les personnes neurotypiques dans un contexte incertain (qu’il soit social ou non). On observe également chez ces personnes une difficulté à réorienter l’attention lorsque les indices contextuels ne sont pas pertinents. Par ailleurs, dans un environnement social les personnes HFA/AS activent moins les aires du « cerveau social » que les personnes neurotypiques. La discussion établit un parallèle entre ces résultats et la littérature existante, et propose des perspectives en termes de prise en charge dans l’autisme / The social world is inherently very uncertain, as the information can change rapidly, unpredictably, and thus it is essential to be able to adapt. People with autism often show a resistance to change and a preference for sameness, associated with decision-making difficulties. They also report that their difficulties are augmented when the decision involves a change in the routine and when a social component is involved. While the decision-making in a social environment has been widely investigated, the influence of the uncertainty of the context (i.e. of a sudden change in the probability of occurrence of an event) and its interaction with the social nature of the environment has never been studied in the context of autism. This thesis aims to better understand how people with High-Functioning Autism (HFA) and Asperger's syndrome (AS) process an unpredictable context. The main question asked here is which of the social or unexpected aspects denote a problem for people with autism in social interactions. We hypothesized that processing of uncertainty is altered in HFA/AS people compared to matched controls, and we wanted to determine what is the influence of a social or a non-social source of information on this alteration. In the first study of this thesis (a behavioural study), we adapted a decision-making task from Behrens et al. (2007, 2008), which implies a stable and an unstable (i.e. uncertain) conditions. The stable or unstable aspect could derive from a social or a non-social cue. The study showed that in our task the difficulties faced by people with HFA/AS in a social environment are more linked to the uncertainty of the context than to its social aspect. HFA/AS participants also showed a global difficulty to integrate contextual cues in decisionmaking. The second study (a functional MRI study) aimed to identify brain regions involved in the uncertainty processing, as well as the effect of the social nature of the environment on this processing. We observed in HFA/AS participants a weaker engagement of the fronto-parietal attentional cerebral network in an unstable context (regardless whether the cue was social or non-social). We also observed in these participants a difficulty to redirect their attention when contextual cues were not relevant. Moreover, in a social environment people with HFA/AS activated less than controls brain areas belonging to the "social brain”. The discussion draws a parallel between these results and the literature, and opens to rehabilitation perspectives for people with autism

Com maiores publicações no início do século XXI, o tema superimitação, ou overimitation, tem despertado interesse de alguns psicólogos e biólogos por se tratar de um possível mecanismo social que leva os humanos a copiarem comportamentos irrelevantes na resolução de uma situação problema a partir de um modelo. Neste contexto, a presente dissertação de mestrado objetivou uma análise do comportamento de superimitação com mecanismos das funções executivas e cognição social de crianças da educação infantil, de 4 a 5 anos de idade. Participaram 36 crianças da educação infantil selecionadas de uma EMEI em São Paulo, segundo critérios pré-estabelecidos, avaliadas com os testes: superimitação (resolução da caixa problemas), teoria da mente - ToM (teste de falsa crença), testes para funções executivas de memória operacional (Missing Test), flexibilidade mental (DCCS), e raciocínio lógico (Teste de Matrizes Coloridas Progressivas de Raven). Os resultados indicaram que a superimitação não apresentou correlação com as funções executivas examinadas. Foram verificados indícios de tratar-se de uma atividade social, por consequência da associação com a função de teoria da mente, em detrimento a uma atividade isolada de resolução de problema cognitivo / Having experienced a growth in number of studies at the beginning of the 21st century, the subject of overimitation has caught the interest of psychologists and biologists in referring to a possible social mechanism that makes humans copy irrelevant behavior during the resolution of problem situations from a model. In that context, the present dissertation has as its objective an analysis of the overimitation behavior in relation to executive function and social cognition mechanisms in preschool children, 4 to 5 years of age. Thirty-six children participated in the study. They wereselected from a public municipal school (EMEI) in São Paulo, Brazil, according to preestablished criteria and evaluated using the problem box resolution task (overimitation), false belief test (ToM), and tests for executive functions of working memory (Missing Test), mental flexibility (DCCS), and logical thinking (Ravens Progressive Matrices Test). The results indicate that overimitation presented no significant correlation to executive functions. The findings provide evidence that overimitation is a result of social activity, since it showed possible association to theory of mind, instead of signs of an isolated activity cognitive problem solving