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Face recognition and emotional expression processing in primates
Englerová, Kateřina ; Nekovářová, Tereza (advisor) ; Fajnerová, Iveta (referee)
Visual modality is one of the most important senses for primates and also for many other an-imals. It allows them to perceive stimuli from their environment - important objects and places, and also conspecifics or individuals of other species. One of the crucial cognitive skills, especially for social animals, is the ability to distinguish between individuals and their emotions due to different facial features and expressions.Aim of this work is to summarize the current knowledge about face and emotion recognition. It includes neurological mechanisms, experimental methodologies and comparison between species.
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Positive aspects of depressive disorder on social cognition
Beránková, Justýna ; Preiss, Marek (advisor) ; Bartošková, Magda (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to present an unusual view on depressive disorder from the perspective of evolutionary psychologists. Recent studies which are engaged in a positive impact of sad mood and depressive disorder on social cognition are presented. These studies are followed by our own quantitative research. Research group of patients with primary diagnosis of depression (n = 41) and control group (n = 41) were examined by Montgomery and Åsberg Depression Rating Scale, Beck Depression Inventory, Schwartz scale and two original methods, that were created for the purpose of this research. Methods include two videotapes - True or False and Speed Dating which focus on the ability of participants to estimate the given social situation. There was no statistically significant difference between the research and the control group in tasks focused on social cognition. The performance of both groups is comparable.
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Social cognition in birds Testing under laboratory conditions
Vondráčková, Nikola ; Nekovářová, Tereza (advisor) ; Fuchs, Roman (referee)
The thesis focuses on avian social cognition and its experimental methods in laboratory environment. Social cognition is the ability to know each other based on individual experience. Perception, attention, reasoning, memory and communication are the necessary cognitive competence of social cognition. Some cognitive domains are exclusively in social cognition - for example communication, theory of mind etc. Species of birds living in social groups constitute the social environment in which individuals respond to each other. Research subject of this thesis consists of these social interactions. Emphasis is placed mainly on parrots and corvids. The aim of this study is to review methods which have been used in order to test social cognition as well as critical evaluation of these methods. Key words: social cognition, cooperation, competition, laboratory tests
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Mirror neuron system: Mechanisms and functions
Loginova, Alisa ; Nekovářová, Tereza (advisor) ; Petrásek, Tomáš (referee)
Mirror neurons (MN) are a group of neurons with extraordinary visuomotor character. Their activation is connected to an observation of a certain action and its execution, if the action was already in motoric repertoire of the observer. MN were firstly identified in macaque's brain, with later identification in human's brain. The most important structures where we can find the MN are Broca's area located in the inferior part of frontal gyrus (IFG), premotor cortex and superior parietal lobule (SPL). The functions of MN are various, they take part in action understanding, imitation, learning and language. According to present knowledge, they were assigned a role in social cognition - while experiencing empathy and theory of mind (ToM). Empathy can be defined as sharing of another person's emotions. ToM highlights the importance of one's ability to represent metal states of other people, knowledge, wishes and experiences. It leads towards understanding and anticipating of another person's actions. Additionally to MN, amygdala, insula and basal ganglia are also important in processes of social cognition. Impairments of social cognitive skills are in autism, schizophrenia and psychopathy. Key words: mirror neuron system, motor area, social cognition, empathy, theory of mind
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Verbal Irony in the Czech Discourse and its Perception
Rýparová, Dominika ; Šebesta, Karel (advisor) ; Saicová Římalová, Lucie (referee) ; Chejnová, Pavla (referee)
Verbal Irony in the Czech Discourse and its Perception Mgr. Dominika Rýparová Abstract This thesis sets the verbal irony into a broader context of human communication and supports the tendency to understand the irony as a communication strategy - not only as a speech figure or a tool to make our way of speaking more attractive. The aim of this work is to remind that irony is an integral part of our everyday communication, and a prerequisite for its use and understanding is built on the particular language experience. The experiment was examining the function of the four forms of irony, which differed in the degree of engaged humour or, conversely, expressed criticism. During the research one was able to get answers from a total of 3,167 respondents. Their analysis revealed that the major motivation for use of the selected types of irony is the humour, but the more humorous the statement is, the more the speaker takes a risk of not being completely understood, because he/she plays with reality too much. Further the results showed that the perception of irony-related emotions is influenced by our age. Younger people are more sensitive to the humorous points of irony, while the older are more tolerant of its critical part. The evaluation of irony is also affected by the communication role of the respondent...
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Positive aspects of depressive disorder on social cognition
Beránková, Justýna ; Preiss, Marek (advisor) ; Bartošková, Magda (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to present an unusual view on depressive disorder from the perspective of evolutionary psychologists. Recent studies which are engaged in a positive impact of sad mood and depressive disorder on social cognition are presented. These studies are followed by our own quantitative research. Research group of patients with primary diagnosis of depression (n = 41) and control group (n = 41) were examined by Montgomery and Åsberg Depression Rating Scale, Beck Depression Inventory, Schwartz scale and two original methods, that were created for the purpose of this research. Methods include two videotapes - True or False and Speed Dating which focus on the ability of participants to estimate the given social situation. There was no statistically significant difference between the research and the control group in tasks focused on social cognition. The performance of both groups is comparable.
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Assessment of Social Cognition and Object Realtions of Patients with Schizophrenia
Smolová, Alžběta ; Soukupová, Tereza (advisor) ; Goldmann, Petr (referee)
The thesis examines social cognition and object relations in patients with schizophrenia using Thematic Apperception Test evaluated by SCORS. The theoretical part of the thesis deals with schizophrenia, Thematic Apperception Test and its interpretation systems (especially Westen's SCORS). Attention is also paid to the theoretical background of social cognition and object relations in patients with schizophrenia. The aim of the study is to verify the assumption that patients with schizophrenia will reach pathological scores in SCORS. The study also explores the relationships between different dimensions of SCORS in this clinical population. The results indicate that patients with schizophrenia have numerous deficits in social cognition and object relations, as measured by SCORS. Significantly lower scores (that belong or are very close to pathology) were found in a total of five SCORS's dimensions. In the remaining three dimensions patients with schizophrenia achieved below-average results. Cross-correlations among SCORS's dimensions and factor analysis results which revealed a three component structure of SCORS in patients with schizophrenia are also discussed. Keywords: Schizophrenia, social cognition, object relations, SCORS, Thematic Apperception Test, correlation analysis, factor analysis.
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Assessment of Processing of Social Information and Object Relations of Men with Pathological Sexual Aggression
Táborská, Lucie ; Soukupová, Tereza (advisor) ; Goldmann, Petr (referee)
ANGLICKÝ ABSTRAKT Thesis Title: The SCORS Scale - An Assessment of Processing of Social Information and Object Relations of Men with Pathological Sexual Aggression Author: Mgr. Bc. Lucie Táborská Department: Department of Psychology Thesis Advisor: PhDr. Tereza Soukupová, Ph.D. Email of Thesis Advisor: tereza.soukupova@pedf.cuni.cz This empirical Thesis Essay titled The SCORS Scale - An Assessment of Processing of Social Information and Object Relations of Men with Pathological Sexual Aggression focuses on study of social skills of men with the diagnosis mentioned. The theoretical portion of the Thesis centers around the subject of sexual deviation as such, namely around pathological sexual aggression and projective methods; in particular, the TAT method and its specific SCORS scoring system. The fundamental research question was whether or not the answers of sample respondents would fall into the sphere of the pathological. Furthermore, the Thesis explores whether the differences between individual segments of the scale are significant or, on the contrary, corresponding. Subsequent examination of the phenomena follows. There were 20 participants in the survey, the individuals belonging to three different psychiatric asylums. D. Westen's SCORS was the method chosen for acquisition of data. The research has...
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Comparison of cognitive achievement in WAIS-III and TAT through SCORS
Hudečková, Lucie ; Soukupová, Tereza (advisor) ; Goldmann, Petr (referee)
This thesis examines the relationship of verbal intelligence and social cognition through verbal subtests of Wechsler intelligence scales for adults (3rd revision) and Differential Self and Complexity of representations of People and Understanding of Social Causality scales in Thematic Apercepčního Test. The theoretical part introduces the concepts of intelligence and social cognition, as well as psychological tests of intelligence tests and apperception techniques. The theoretical part also focuses on the social intelligence as an answer to the question of the relationship between intelligence and social cognition. In the empirical part of the thesis data collected from 30 probands is processed who underwent testing above mentioned psychological tests. The data are processed with correlation and factor analysis. The conclusions statistical processing are in the thesis further developed in the context of the theoretical base of scientific knowledge. The discussion points to limits of the testing and suggests options for the future researchs.
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