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Over the past three decades mounting evidence has suggested that infants’ social perceptual and social cognitive abilities are considerably richer than was once thought. By the end of the second year of life, infants discriminate faces along various social dimensions, attend to and understand others’ goals and intentions, use the emotions of others to guide their learning and behavior, attribute dispositional characteristics to other agents, and make basic social evaluations. What has also become clear is that there is a great deal of variability in infants’ social perception and cognition. A critical, outstanding question concerns the nature and meaning of such variability. The proposed Research Topic welcomes papers addressing cutting-edge questions regarding variability and individual differences in early social perception and social cognition. The goal of these papers is to investigate overarching questions in this domain, which are necessary to move the field forward. Variability in early social perception and social cognition (among other domains) in infancy and early childhood is often attributed to noise, or overlooked in favor of focusing on age-related changes. Yet, recent work suggests that variability in social perceptual and social cognitive tasks reliably inter-relates, and predicts real-world social behaviors. For example, infants’ everyday experience with different face categories predicts individual differences in face processing, infants’ production of goal-directed actions predicts their simultaneous understanding of these actions, and variability in social attention during the second year of life is related to theory of mind during the preschool years. These findings suggest that variability in performance on social perception and social cognition tasks is not merely a nuisance variable, but, rather, may provide the key to addressing significant questions regarding the nature of infants’ social perception and social cognition, and the processes that underlie developmental change. Acknowledging and closely examining and investigating variability in early social perceptual and social cognitive abilities may represent a powerful approach for understanding development in (at least) two ways. First, variability can signal transitional points in the developmental onset of a given ability. Thus, such variability, and the extent to which variability relates to experience and/or other abilities, can be used to test hypotheses regarding mechanisms that underlie developmental changes. Second, variability can represent more enduring individual differences between infants. In this case, critical questions arise regarding the source of individual differences (that is, what factors shape the emergence of individual differences?) and whether such early individual differences contribute to the development of more advanced and sophisticated forms of social cognition and behavior. The goal of this Research Topic will be to encourage researchers to take variability in early social perception and cognition seriously. Papers that give variability center stage, and are aimed at addressing the value of variability for identifying developmental mechanisms, as well as investigating the existence, source, and antecedents of early individual differences in social perception and social cognition are welcomed. Taken together, the contributed papers will provide integral new information to the study of social perception and social cognition over the first three years of life.

Cognition in infants. --- infant cognition --- social cognition --- developmental mechanisms --- individual differences --- social perception

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Over the past three decades mounting evidence has suggested that infants’ social perceptual and social cognitive abilities are considerably richer than was once thought. By the end of the second year of life, infants discriminate faces along various social dimensions, attend to and understand others’ goals and intentions, use the emotions of others to guide their learning and behavior, attribute dispositional characteristics to other agents, and make basic social evaluations. What has also become clear is that there is a great deal of variability in infants’ social perception and cognition. A critical, outstanding question concerns the nature and meaning of such variability. The proposed Research Topic welcomes papers addressing cutting-edge questions regarding variability and individual differences in early social perception and social cognition. The goal of these papers is to investigate overarching questions in this domain, which are necessary to move the field forward. Variability in early social perception and social cognition (among other domains) in infancy and early childhood is often attributed to noise, or overlooked in favor of focusing on age-related changes. Yet, recent work suggests that variability in social perceptual and social cognitive tasks reliably inter-relates, and predicts real-world social behaviors. For example, infants’ everyday experience with different face categories predicts individual differences in face processing, infants’ production of goal-directed actions predicts their simultaneous understanding of these actions, and variability in social attention during the second year of life is related to theory of mind during the preschool years. These findings suggest that variability in performance on social perception and social cognition tasks is not merely a nuisance variable, but, rather, may provide the key to addressing significant questions regarding the nature of infants’ social perception and social cognition, and the processes that underlie developmental change. Acknowledging and closely examining and investigating variability in early social perceptual and social cognitive abilities may represent a powerful approach for understanding development in (at least) two ways. First, variability can signal transitional points in the developmental onset of a given ability. Thus, such variability, and the extent to which variability relates to experience and/or other abilities, can be used to test hypotheses regarding mechanisms that underlie developmental changes. Second, variability can represent more enduring individual differences between infants. In this case, critical questions arise regarding the source of individual differences (that is, what factors shape the emergence of individual differences?) and whether such early individual differences contribute to the development of more advanced and sophisticated forms of social cognition and behavior. The goal of this Research Topic will be to encourage researchers to take variability in early social perception and cognition seriously. Papers that give variability center stage, and are aimed at addressing the value of variability for identifying developmental mechanisms, as well as investigating the existence, source, and antecedents of early individual differences in social perception and social cognition are welcomed. Taken together, the contributed papers will provide integral new information to the study of social perception and social cognition over the first three years of life.

Cognition in infants. --- infant cognition --- social cognition --- developmental mechanisms --- individual differences --- social perception

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This book offers a sharp critique and a detailed analysis of some pernicious social welfare problems and the wide-ranging causes and consequences of those complex social issues on individuals, families, and communities. Unemployment, health-care disparities, teenage pregnancy, and intimate partner violence constitute the focus of this work. Based on empirical and historical analyses of primary and secondary data, the book provides a conceptual framework that facilitates the reader's understanding of how those social issues are interrelated. Each chapter offers some clear policy recommendations directed to address those social problems. Written by well-published scholars, this work will be of great interest not only to students majoring in the social and political sciences but also to academics and practitioners active in the field of social welfare, social policy, and social work.

Social perception. --- Cognition, Social --- Interpersonal perception --- Social cognition --- Interpersonal relations --- Perception --- Social cognitive theory --- Social Sciences --- Social Services --- Social Sciences and Humanities --- Social Policy

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Recent advances in computer technologies and research now enable to simulate realistic social interaction thanks to the use of increasingly complex computer models. Virtual agents reproducing both human appearance and expressive behaviors are now available for supporting affective interactions with users. Two deeply intertwined fields of knowledge already benefit from such innovations concerning virtual agents and affective computing: psychiatry and social neurosciences. Indeed, these techniques offer a good compromise between reproducibility and ecological validity when designing paradigms that address complex issues such as human interaction, intersubjectivity or social behavior. Firstly, the use of virtual reality may boost research in the field of social neurosciences which requires naturalistic, although reproducible, experimental situations of increasing complexity. In the past recent years, many researches shed light on contextual effects that may influence social judgments/interactions and the related disorders. New techniques such as virtual expressive agents and computational models of emotions and social interaction offer new ways to address the issues of the social cues (e.g. facial expressions, bodily expressions, etc.) that are integrated by a person while he/she performs empathetic evaluation, mentalizing (theory of mind or mental state attribution), agency judgments, etc. Although its potential for psychological experimentation is obvious, no consensus on experimental methods in virtual interfaces has been reached yet. The almost infinite degrees of freedom of experimental paradigms make it difficult to rely on traditional designs. Indeed, interactive settings require taking into account the unpredictable and even chaotic dynamics that arise from multiple agent interactions. Secondly, considering the therapeutic use of virtual agents or affective computing technologies, the main asset of these techniques relies on the possibility to reproduce interactive social situations without the threatening or distressing consequences of such situations in the real world. For instance, cognitive rehabilitation is already investigated with schizophrenic and autistic participants within virtual immersive environments. It appears that theoretical insights and experimental data are necessary to address the issues of effectiveness, acceptability, motivation, and to better integrate these innovations within integrated remediation programs. Keeping in mind the very innovative nature of the fields described here, the aim of the present topic is to delineate the added value of expressive virtual agents and affective computing techniques for the experimentation on naturalistic social interactions and/or for the remediation of social cognition disorders.

Social interaction --- Cognition disorders --- Cognitive psychology. --- Computer simulation. --- Social aspects. --- Treatment. --- virtual reality --- social cognition --- Mental Disorders --- Schizophrenia --- augmented reality --- Avatar --- autism --- Affective Computing --- cognitive training

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Recent advances in computer technologies and research now enable to simulate realistic social interaction thanks to the use of increasingly complex computer models. Virtual agents reproducing both human appearance and expressive behaviors are now available for supporting affective interactions with users. Two deeply intertwined fields of knowledge already benefit from such innovations concerning virtual agents and affective computing: psychiatry and social neurosciences. Indeed, these techniques offer a good compromise between reproducibility and ecological validity when designing paradigms that address complex issues such as human interaction, intersubjectivity or social behavior. Firstly, the use of virtual reality may boost research in the field of social neurosciences which requires naturalistic, although reproducible, experimental situations of increasing complexity. In the past recent years, many researches shed light on contextual effects that may influence social judgments/interactions and the related disorders. New techniques such as virtual expressive agents and computational models of emotions and social interaction offer new ways to address the issues of the social cues (e.g. facial expressions, bodily expressions, etc.) that are integrated by a person while he/she performs empathetic evaluation, mentalizing (theory of mind or mental state attribution), agency judgments, etc. Although its potential for psychological experimentation is obvious, no consensus on experimental methods in virtual interfaces has been reached yet. The almost infinite degrees of freedom of experimental paradigms make it difficult to rely on traditional designs. Indeed, interactive settings require taking into account the unpredictable and even chaotic dynamics that arise from multiple agent interactions. Secondly, considering the therapeutic use of virtual agents or affective computing technologies, the main asset of these techniques relies on the possibility to reproduce interactive social situations without the threatening or distressing consequences of such situations in the real world. For instance, cognitive rehabilitation is already investigated with schizophrenic and autistic participants within virtual immersive environments. It appears that theoretical insights and experimental data are necessary to address the issues of effectiveness, acceptability, motivation, and to better integrate these innovations within integrated remediation programs. Keeping in mind the very innovative nature of the fields described here, the aim of the present topic is to delineate the added value of expressive virtual agents and affective computing techniques for the experimentation on naturalistic social interactions and/or for the remediation of social cognition disorders.

Social interaction --- Cognition disorders --- Cognitive psychology. --- virtual reality --- social cognition --- Mental Disorders --- Schizophrenia --- augmented reality --- Avatar --- autism --- Affective Computing --- cognitive training --- Computer simulation. --- Social aspects. --- Treatment.