Visual perspective taking is not automatic in a simplified Dot task

Abstract

In the Dot task, children and adults involuntarily compute an avatar’s visual perspective, which has been interpreted as automatic Theory of Mind. We conducted three experiments in India, testing newly sighted children (N=5; all girls), neurotypical children (ages 5-10; N=90; 38 girls) and adults (N=30; 18 women) in a highly simplified version of the Dot task. No evidence of automatic perspective-taking was observed, although all groups revealed perspective-taking costs. A newly sighted child and the youngest children in our sample also showed an egocentric bias, which disappeared by age 10. Responding to recent work on what Theory of Mind tasks actually measure, we conclude that the standard Dot task relies so heavily on Executive Control that the alleged evidence of automatic Theory of Mind might simply reveal perspective switching costs.

No signs of automatic perspective-taking or its modulation by joint attention in toddlers using an object retrieval task

“…The null findings are consistent with other reports of an absence of automatic perspective-taking, both in adults [ 29 , 31 , 40 – 44 , 50 ] and children [ 28 , 32 ]. Some of these other studies also used the sandbox paradigm [ 32 , 50 ].…”

“…Children's object retrievals were not biased toward another's outdated information about where the objects were located. Along with other findings [ 28 , 29 , 40 – 44 ], the results question the idea that children involuntarily take others' perspectives.…”

“…In sum, interpretive caution is required to avoid mistaking attentional cueing and other biases for automatic perspective-taking. Apart from these theoretical considerations, an empirical problem for the claim of automaticity in perspective-taking is that successful laboratory-independent replications are scarce, and negative findings like the ones reported here are accumulating [ 28 , 29 , 42 , 44 ].…”

“…However, the same congruency effect occurred when the agent was replaced by an asymmetrically shaped artefact (a desk-fan), suggesting that attentional cueing accounts for the effect [ 29 ]. The proposal that young children prioritize others' perspectives over their own has also failed to receive support from recent studies [ 28 , 32 ]. For example, a study with 3- to 6-year-olds showed that children only displayed sensitivity to others’ viewpoints when asked to think about the other's perspective, but not otherwise [ 32 ].…”

“…Despite these reports, the existence of automatic perspective-taking remains contested. Several recent studies using the dot-perspective paradigm found no signs of automatic perspective-taking ( [28][29][30]; see also an ongoing meta-analysis [31]). In one of these studies, performance was lower when another's perspective was incongruent compared with when it was congruent with that of the participant.…”