Document Type

Preprint

Publication Date

8-1-2023

Journal / Book Title

Research in Developmental Disabilities

Abstract

Visuospatial perspective taking (VPT) refers to the process of mentally representing a viewpoint different from one's own. It is related to mental rotation and theory of mind and helps to support some complex spatial activities such as wayfinding. Despite research advances in spatial cognition, little is known about VPT in people with Down syndrome (DS). Here, we examined VPT in people with DS. A total of 38 individuals with DS (aged 12–25 years old) and nonverbal ability-matched typically developing (TD) children (aged 4–9 years old) participated. They completed two VPT tasks: the classic Piagetian Three Mountains Task and a modified version of the “Dog Task” (Newcombe & Huttenlocher, 1992). For both groups, the Three Mountains Task was more difficult than the Dog Task, implying the impact of task complexity on assessing VPT. However, the overall performance did not differ between the TD and DS groups in either VPT task. Implications of the results were discussed.

DOI

10.1016/j.ridd.2023.104565

Rights

HHS Public Access Author manuscript Res Dev Disabil. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2025 August 04. Published in final edited form as: Res Dev Disabil. 2023 August ; 139: 104565. doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2023.104565.

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