Spatial Perspective Taking

Perspective taking is broadly described as having the ability to gain an understanding of a different individual’s point of view. Previous studies have shown that perspective taking can be improved by the presentation of human-like characters relative to inanimate objects (Clements-Stephens, Vasiljevic, Murray, & Shelton, 2013). Additionally, there is an increase in spontaneous perspective taking for participants, when the actor’s action (i.e., reaching) does not match his/her gaze (Furlanetto et al., 2013). The current study explores how the agent’s gaze and action impact perspective taking. Different from previous studies, we included two types of action: grasping and reaching. Seventy college students (age 18+) were tested to complete a series of spatial perspective tasks administered through DMDX software on a computer. Participants were randomly assigned to take either an allocentric or egocentric perspective when taking the task. Participants viewed pictures of two humans, with one being African American and the other Caucasian. Results found no effects of gaze and grasping such that there was no difference in participants’ perspective taking whether the human in the picture gazed at or grasped the object or not. However, reaching has an effect such that perspective taking is faster when the reaching action is consistent with the probed perspectives. The results highlighted the importance of agents’ intents (but not action) as manifested by hands, but not eyes, in spatial perspective taking.