3-107 - Time is of the essence: How the efficiency of social cognitive processes affects social behavior

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

For effective social interactions to occur, individuals must rapidly track and adapt their social responses to information that can change from moment to moment. Only recently, however, has research begun to assess the efficiency with which children process social information. This symposium brings together researchers examining two core issues related to this topic: 1) How efficiently do children of different ages reason about others’ desires and beliefs; and 2) Does the speed of children’s social cognitive processing affect their social functioning across different contexts.

The first presentation will examine whether goal prediction speed in 16- to 19-month-olds is related to their ability to engage in helping and imitation behaviours. The second presentation will examine whether 5-year-olds can rapidly reason about a speaker’s desire in order to constrain their online interpretation of spoken communication. The third presentation will address whether signature limits in perspective-taking remain stable throughout development and can influence the timing of adults’ responses in a helping task. A discussant with extensive research expertise in social cognitive development will provide commentary on the theoretical implications of this collective research.

Overall, these papers highlight innovative methods for assessing the timing of social cognitive processes across different ages and social contexts. Importantly, this research provides valuable insight into how the speed of processing social information may have cascading effects on the development of social competence.

Sub Unit

• Social Cognition

Chair

• Valerie San Juan, University of Calgary

Discussant

• Hannes Rakoczy, University of Göttingen

Individual Presentations

• Goal Prediction Speed Contributes to Social Competence: An Analysis of Social and Nonsocial Information Processing Speed - Presenting Author: Sheila Krogh-Jespersen, DePaul University; Amanda Woodward, University of Chicago

• 5-Year-Olds Efficiently Reason about their Speaker’s Desire to Constrain Online Referential Communication - Presenting Author: Valerie San Juan, University of Calgary; Craig Chambers, University of Toronto; Susan Graham, University of Calgary

• Signature Limits on Efficient Mindreading in a Helping Context - Presenting Author: Christopher Maymon, Victoria University in Wellington; Schyana Sivanantham, Victoria University in Wellington; Jason Low, Victoria University in Wellington; Stephen Butterfill, University of Warwick