Reading: Summary, Note & Table Completion: Question 5
Syllabus R.summary-table-completion
Yawning is one of the most recognisable involuntary human behaviours, yet it remains one of the least understood. Most people report having experienced 'contagious' yawning: the powerful urge to yawn triggered simply by seeing, hearing, or even reading about another person yawning. Laboratory studies have confirmed the effect is real and measurable, in a typical experiment, participants shown a short video of a stranger yawning repeatedly yawn themselves at roughly three times the rate of participants shown a neutral control video, such as footage of someone smiling.
Two competing explanations dominate current research. The first, the empathy hypothesis, proposes that contagious yawning is linked to an observer's capacity to recognise and share another person's internal state, since brain-imaging studies have found that watching someone yawn activates regions associated with social cognition and mirroring another's actions. Supporting this view, several studies report that susceptibility to contagious yawning is markedly reduced in young children under the age of four, an age at which the broader capacity for empathy is still developing, and is also somewhat reduced in autistic adults, a population in which social-cognitive processing can differ from the general population.
A rival explanation, the brain-cooling hypothesis, argues that yawning primarily serves to regulate the temperature of the brain rather than to communicate anything socially. According to this view, a deep yawn draws a large volume of cooler air into the mouth and increases blood flow to the face and skull, lowering brain temperature by a small but measurable amount. One frequently cited experiment found that participants holding a warm pack against their forehead yawned contagiously far more often after watching a video of yawning than participants holding a cold pack, since a brain that is already running warm has more to gain from the cooling effect a yawn provides.
Neither hypothesis has been fully confirmed, and most researchers who study the phenomenon now suspect that contagious yawning may serve both a thermoregulatory and a social function simultaneously, with the balance between the two shifting according to context, species and even the specific relationship between the yawner and the observer.
Complete the table below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
| Detail | Information from the passage |
|---|---|
| Typical increase in yawning rate after watching a yawning video, compared with a control video | (1) ____________________ |
| Example of a neutral control video used in these studies | footage of (2) ____________________ |
| Age below which contagious-yawning susceptibility is markedly reduced | under the age of (3) ____________________ |
| Adult group also showing somewhat reduced susceptibility | (4) ____________________ |
| What a deep yawn is said to lower, according to the brain-cooling hypothesis | (5) ____________________ |
| What a deep yawn draws into the mouth, according to the brain-cooling hypothesis | (6) ____________________ |
| Item held against the forehead by participants in the warm-pack experiment | a (7) ____________________ |
| Aspect of brain function linked to watching someone yawn, according to the empathy hypothesis | (8) ____________________ |
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Worked solution
Answer key with explanations
- three times. Participants who watched a yawning video “yawn themselves at roughly three times the rate” of those shown a control video.
- someone smiling. The control video is described as “footage of someone smiling.”
- four. Susceptibility “is markedly reduced in young children under the age of four.”
- autistic adults. Susceptibility “is also somewhat reduced in autistic adults.”
- brain temperature. A deep yawn increases blood flow, “lowering brain temperature by a small but measurable amount.”
- cooler air, “A deep yawn draws a large volume of cooler air into the mouth.”
- warm pack. In the experiment, “participants holding a warm pack against their forehead” yawned more contagiously.
- social cognition. Watching someone yawn “activates regions associated with social cognition and mirroring another’s actions.”
Word-limit check
Every answer above is one or two words copied exactly from the passage, so each satisfies the “NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS” instruction.
Final answers
- 1 three times
- 2 someone smiling
- 3 four
- 4 autistic adults
- 5 brain temperature
- 6 cooler air
- 7 warm pack
- 8 social cognition