Abstract
What happens when an observer takes an agent's visual perspective of a scene? We conducted a series of experiments designed to measure what proportion of adults take a stimulus-centered rather than agent-centered approach to a visual perspective taking task. Adults were presented with images of an agent looking at a number (69). From the perspective of the viewer, the number appeared upside down. We then asked participants what number the agent saw. An agent-centered approach, that is, one that takes into account the other's visual experience, should produce the correct answer "69". Even an egocentric error (i.e., the participant's own perspective) would provide the same correct response. We were interested in what proportion of participants would give the incorrect answer "96", which is best explained by a stimulus-centered rather than agent-centered strategy, namely "flipping" each digit one at a time from left to right. Crucially, such a strategy ignores the alternative visual perspective. We found that, on average, 12-21% of participants made this error. We discuss this finding in the context of the key questions around representation, content, and Theory of Mind in visual perspective taking. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
DOI
10.1037/xlm0001121
Publication Date
2022-04-01
Publication Title
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition
Publisher
American Psychological Association
ISSN
0278-7393
Embargo Period
2024-11-22
Recommended Citation
Samuel, S. (2022) 'Visual perspective taking without visual perspective taking', Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, . American Psychological Association: Available at: https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0001121
