December 2017

Dr. Frances Chen, UBC, Department of Psychology

Subtle Processes Influencing Social Connection: From Misperceptions to Olfactory Cues

High-quality social connections and adequate social support networks are vital for physical and mental health. My research examines some ways in which social connection is influenced by psychological and physiological processes that occur outside of our awareness. Specifically, I will discuss (1) how our (mistaken) beliefs about peers’ lives can influence our friendship formation and (2) how social support can be communicated through olfactory cues. I will consider how such findings could be used to develop evidence-based strategies for combating loneliness and social isolation.

September 2017

Dr. Ipek Oruc, UBC, Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences

The adult face-diet revealed: Impact of daily face exposure on the perception of faces 

Faces are ecologically significant stimuli central to social interaction and communication. Human observers are considered to be experts in face perception due to their remarkable ability to recall great numbers of unique facial identities encountered in a lifetime, their sensitivity to subtle differences that distinguish different identities, and their robustness across significant differences among images of the same identity. A large body of work in the last several decades has investigated limits to this expertise such as recognition of faces of unfamiliar races (“the other-race effect”) and faces viewed in the inverted orientation (“the face-inversion effect”). In this talk, I will describe recent results from our group that have suggested that face size, as a proxy for viewing distance, impacts face recognition processing and performance. Furthermore, I will present results from our recent naturalistic observation study that examined adults’ daily face exposure, i.e., the adult face-diet. I will compare the adult face-diet to what is known about that of infants and consider these results in light of effects of size on face recognition. I will speculate about origins of these size effects and consider contributions from innate and genetic factors, early exposure during sensitive periods of development, and late exposure during adulthood.

June 2017

Dr. Mareike Bacha-Trams, Aalto University, Department of Biomedical Engineering 

Differential Intersubject Correlation of Brain Activity when Kinship is a Variable in Moral Dilemma

Previous behavioural studies have shown that humans act more altruistically towards kin. Whether and how knowledge of genetic relatedness translates into differential neurocognitive evaluation of observed social interactions has remained an open question. Here, we investigated how the human brain is engaged when viewing a moral dilemma between genetic vs. non-genetic sisters. During functional magnetic resonance imaging, a movie was shown, depicting refusal of organ donation between two sisters, with subjects guided to believe the sisters were related either genetically or by adoption. Although 90% of the subjects self-reported that genetic relationship was not relevant, their brain activity told a different story. Comparing inter-subject correlations (ISC) of brain activity between conditions, we found significantly stronger correlations in insula, cingulate, medial and lateral prefrontal, superior temporal, and superior parietal cortices, when the subjects believed that the sisters were genetically related. Cognitive functions previously associated with these areas include moral and emotional conflict regulation, decision making, and mentalizing, suggesting more similar engagement of such functions when observing refusal of altruism from genetic sister. Our results show that mere knowledge of a genetic relationship between interacting persons robustly modulates social cognition of the perceiver. 

June 2017

Dr. Alisa Almas, UBC, School of Population and Public Health

Relations Between Early Psychosocial Deprivation and Social Behaviour: Findings from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project

Early-emerging social skills and behaviors provide the foundation from which children learn to negotiate their increasingly complex social worlds. Poor social skills can lead to social rejection or exclusion, poor quality friendships, and poorer functioning in adolescence and adulthood. Children who are abandoned to institutions are often deprived of the conditions and experiences that set the stage for successful social development. In my talk, I will discuss findings from The Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP), a longitudinal study of the effects of early psychosocial deprivation as well as foster care intervention on the development of Romanian children who were abandoned to institutions as infants. Children have been followed from infancy and are currently being assessed at 15 years of age. I will discuss children’s social behavior examined during childhood and adolescence, as well as factors that may influence these behaviors. 

May 2017

Dr. Daniel Skorich, University of Queensland, Psychology

Is Autism a Disorder of Social Self-Categorization?

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is currently understood as a 'fractionated' disorder, composed of separate but co-occurring clusters of features. At present, no common causative mechanism has been identified to explain why these different clusters of features co-occur in the disorder. In the current research, we present evidence that the cognitive process of social categorization could explain the co-occurrence of at least two of these clusters: those related to Theory of Mind (ToM) dysfunction and to Weak Central Coherence (WCC). Across two experiments, participants from the general population were asked to complete a category confusion task, after which they were asked to infer the mental states of novel category members (Expt. 1) or to engage in a shared attention task (Expt. 2), and to complete the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ). Results reveal a positive relationship between AQ and local social categorization (Expt. 1), and a negative relationship between AQ and the degree of self-categorization (Expt.2), consistent with weaker central coherence among those with more autistic-like traits. Furthermore, the level and degree of categorization were found to predict the pattern of mental state inferences (Expt. 1) and the pattern of shared attention (Expt. 2). These results therefore provide preliminary evidence that WCC and ToM abilites in ASD might be related via a social categorization mechanism, and suggest the possibility of a more unified cognitive account of the disorder. Implications for intervention will also be discussed.

April 2017

Dr. Jessica Tracy, University of British Columbia, Psychology

The Nature of Pride: The Emotional Origins of Social Rank

Why do people respond to their most impressive and apparent successes by engaging in verbal and nonverbal displays of self-celebration, superiority, and even arrogance? I will present a series of studies demonstrating that humans may have an evolved tendency to respond to success by showing pride, a distinct and universally recognized emotion expression. I will further argue that this expression evolved to serve a fundamental social function: communicating to others an individual’s deservedness of high status or social rank. As I will show, the pride expression is a powerful status signal, sending a message that is distinct from other emotions, implicitly perceived, and strong enough to counteract contradictory contextual information in shaping status-based decision-making. Furthermore, findings from a separate line of research on the psychological structure of pride support this functionalist account. Individuals subjectively experience and think about pride in two distinct ways, consistent with a theoretical distinction between a confident and effort-based “authentic” pride, and a more grandiose and self-aggrandizing “hubristic” pride. These findings explain how the experience of pride may serve a complementary function to its expression. Specifically, each form of pride is linked to a distinct rank-attainment strategy (i.e., “dominance” vs. “prestige”), suggesting that each motivates a divergent set of behaviors needed to attain each of these two forms of rank. Overall, this research suggests that pride is a complex and multifaceted social emotion that is closely linked to self-esteem, narcissism, achievement, and status, and may be an evolved part of human nature.  

February 2017

Dr. Jim Enns - University of British Columbia, Cognitive Sciences 

We Read the Body to Reveal the Mind

Many studies have documented our exquisite sensitivity to where someone else is attending (e.g., Susan is about to reach for her phone). I will report new studies gauging sensitivity to possibly an even more important question: How was other’s attention directed to that location (e.g., did Susan’s phone blink or did she choose to pick it up?). The experiments reveal that humans are sensitive to subtle differences in bodily cues that occur when someone else’s attention is controlled by an internal choice versus an external signal. This finding brings William James’s longstanding distinction between reflexive and voluntary attention squarely into the realm of a modern topic: reading other’s minds through action observation.

November 2016

Dr. David Trembath - Griffith University, Speech Pathology, School of Allied Health Sciences

Examining Early Intervention Outcomes for Children with Autism

Despite the development of a range of evidence based interventions for children with autism, substantial individual variability in outcomes is common. In this seminar, methods for examining these differences and findings from recent studies involving children receiving comprehensive early intervention programs in Australia will be presented and discussed. Research examining AAC intervention outcomes for children on the autism spectrum often points to overall positive group effects but substantial individual differences. In this presentation, approaches to understanding and addressing these differences will be examined, with reference to the research literature and preliminary findings from current studies. 

November 2016

Dr. Jeff Sugarman - SFU, Education

Historical Ontology and Psychological Description    

This presentation outlines historical ontology as an approach to psychological inquiry. Historical ontology is concerned with the ways possibilities for existence arise in history. The ontology of persons is constituted largely of the ways they are described and the appropriation and incorporation of these descriptions into their self-understanding. Consequently, as applied to persons, historical ontology is the study of psychological description. This encompasses where, when, and how psychological description occurs, the purposes it serves, how it is implemented and sustained, and its effects. It seeks to reveal the events, institutions, knowledge, and practices through which we come to recognize, experience, and act on ourselves as certain kinds of persons. Two fundamental premises in applying historical ontology to psychology are: first, the proper objects of psychological inquiry are persons; and second, personhood is constituted at a particular place and time, with means and materials forged within the particularities of their own unique historical formations that mark us distinctively as the kinds of persons we are. The approach will be illustrated using the examples of social anxiety disorder, the kinds of selfhood promoted by educational psychology, and autism

October 2016

Dr. Tanya Broesch - SFU, Psychology

Social learning across cultures: Evidence from small-scale societies

The ability to learn from others has been considered the hallmark of human social cognition. A recent interest in determining how humans transmit cultural information across generations has led to a debate both across and within disciplines. In developmental psychology, there is a recent interest in the species-unique ability to produce and receive non-verbal communicative cues to transmit culturally relevant information (opaque knowledge). One theory suggests that direct teaching in the form of ostensive cues (natural pedagogy) is critical/central to cumulative cultural evolution, facilitating the transmission of complex information across generations with high fidelity. However, decades of detailed ethnographic reports by anthropologists documenting adult and child behavior across diverse societies indicates that direct teaching is rare outside of Western, industrialized, urban societies. These reports challenge existing theories of the universality of natural pedagogy and the use of ostensive cues to direct attention in a learning contest. I approach this question with two programs of research: 1) documenting behavior across cultures (video recorded natural observations) and, 2) examining the extent to which cues are produced and received by adults, infants and children across cultures using experimental paradigms. The overall goal is to identify similarities and differences in social communicative behavior across diverse social ecologies. This research has theoretical implications (cultural transmission and social learning theories) as well as practical implications (learning and social development).

June 2016

Dr. Steve DiPaola, SFU, School of Interactive Arts & Technology

Using  Artificial Intelligence and VR systems to Understand Human Social Behavior and Creativity

What is the place of new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), 3D Gaming Graphics and Virtual Reality in better understanding human behaviour? Steve DiPaola, past director of SFU Cognitive Science and current lead of the Intelligent Visualization Lab (ivizlab.sfu.ca), will demonstrate his lab's work in using sensing tools such as face & eye tracking, gesture tracking and biosensing systems in conjunction with VR based 3d facial and character systems as well as AI to generate, model and analyze aspects of human (and animal) social expression, behavior and creativity.

May 2016

Dr. Susan Birch, University of British Columbia - Developmental Psychology

How Children's Social Learning Preferences Can Shed Light on Their Understanding of the Mind


The human proclivity to learn from others has captured the attention of scholars from various disciplines for decades. Social transmission of information allows us to learn infinitely more than if we were restricted to learning first-hand (e.g., through time-consuming trial-and-error). Some information is impractical or even dangerous to acquire first-hand (e.g., whether bears are safe to pet). Other information is impossible to learn first-hand (e.g., language and other cultural conventions). Yet, social learning comes with its own set of risks and challenges: people sometimes convey misinformation out of ignorance, uncertainty, or deception. People also differ in their general level of intelligence as well as their individual areas of expertise and frequently offer their *opinions* rather than facts. For these reasons, it is exceedingly important for learners to assess if, when, and for what types of information others are credible sources, rather than passively absorbing all information others convey.  In this talk, I will review the findings from my research program examining young children’s sensitivity to different cues that signal whether someone is a credible source of information. Such cues include an informant’s prior accuracy, degree of confidence, and level of social ‘prestige’ (operationally defined as the amount of preferential attention their actions receive from others).  The results from this line of work reveal that children are vigilant of some credibility cues (e.g., nonverbal cues of confidence or certainty) as early as two years of age.  Several implications of this work will be discussed with a particular emphasis on what this work tells us about children’s social cognitive development.

April 2016

Dr. Jim Tanaka, University of Victoria, Psychology - Cognitive Neuroscience

Face value: The perception and production facial expressions in autism

We can tell a lot from a person’s face. In a blink of an eye, we know their gender, race and identity. We make inferences about their emotional state and form impressions about their personality and intentions. Consciously or unconsciously, the information conveyed in a person’s face shapes and regulates our everyday social encounters with others. While most of us are "experts" in understanding the social meaning of faces, research has shown that individuals on the autism spectrum have problems recognizing faces, interpreting facial emotions and producing appropriate facial expressions.  In my talk, I will discuss results from an exciting new intervention that uses cutting-edge technology in automatic expression recognition to teach face perception and production skills to children on the autism spectrum.  Our findings indicate that a two-week home intervention was sufficient to boost the expression and production skills of children in the intervention group. By teaching the principles of face processing, the goal of the research is to improve the social lives of people on the autism spectrum.

March 2016

Spontaneous gaze following within face-to-face interactions: an examination of children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders

Dr. Elina Birmingham, Faculty of Education

A clinical characteristic of autism is reduced gaze following. However, this finding has mainly been observed in young children within semi-naturalistic interactions. Much of the research on older children and adults has occurred in the context of computerized “gaze cuing” paradigms, and has led to mixed findings. Here I present data from a naturalistic paradigm designed for measuring spontaneous gaze following in older children and adolescents.  Implications for autism research and for research with neurotypical populations will be discussed    

February  2016

Effects of social contact on infant word form processing

Dr. Henny Yeung, Linguistics Department.

Infants and children do not all learn language equally fast, or equally well. Early differences in language proficiency are almost entirely explained by variations in parental speech input—specifically, the quantity and quality of the speech heard at home. Speech input quantity is easily measured by counting words or word types, but the quality of this input is harder to analyze. Here I explore one aspect of input quality: social contact, or being approached, smiled at, and touched while hearing speech. My research will test the effects of social contact on an early-emerging cognitive skill: infant word form processing, which refers to the identification and subsequent recognition of the sound structures of words, and which also serves as an early index of language development. Results suggest that social contact may enhance attention to word forms in 8-month-old French-learning infants. Mechanisms of this enhancement will be discussed.

December 2015

Understanding the Development of Adolescent Antisocial Behavior from an Interdisciplinary Approach: Some Insights from Person-Oriented Approach, Behavioral Genetics, and Dynamical Systems

Dr. Yao Zheng, Department of Psychology

Abstract. The development of antisocial behavior and substance use from adolescence to young adulthood is under the confluences of environment, such as family and peer processes, and genotypes. An interdisciplinary approach towards adolescentantisocial behavior offers opportunities for a deeper understanding of its development at multiple levels. In this talk I will discuss: 1) gender-specific developmental trajectories of antisocial behavior from adolescence to youngadulthood, while considering the subtypes of violent and nonviolent delinquency, using person-oriented approach; 2) differential genetic and environmental influences, and their sex differences, in different developmental trajectories ofantisocial behavior using quantitative genetic modeling; and 3) intra-individual fluctuation of delinquency and substance use during adolescence, and differential susceptibility to prevention effects moderated by susceptible genes, using dynamical systems modeling.