When do humans spontaneously adopt another’s visuospatial perspective?

Abstract

Perspective-taking is a key component of social interactions. However, there is an ongoing controversy about whether, when and how instances of spontaneous visuospatial perspective-taking occur. The aim of this study was to investigate the underlying factors as well as boundary conditions that characterize the spontaneous adoption of another person's visuospatial perspective (VSP) during social interactions. We used a novel paradigm, in which a participant and a confederate performed a simple stimulus-response (SR) compatibility task sitting at a 90° angle to each other. In this set-up, participants would show a spatial compatibility effect only if they adopted the confederate's VSP. In a series of 5 experiments we found that participants reliably adopted the VSP of the confederate, as long as he was perceived as an intentionally acting agent. Our results therefore show that humans are able to spontaneously adopt the differing VSP of another agent and that there is a tight link between perspective-taking and performing actions together. The results suggest that spontaneous VSP-taking can effectively facilitate and speed up spatial alignment processes accruing from dynamic interactions in multiagent environments.

Teams on the same wavelength perform better: Inter-brain phase synchronization constitutes a neural substrate for social facilitation

“…According to these concepts, brain functions cannot be fully understood by observing neuronal subsystems or individuals in isolation; instead, the dynamic interactions among brain, behavior, and environment (Kelso, 1994;Thompson and Varela, 2001) need to be taken into account. In line with this assertion, studies of interacting individuals (Freundlieb et al, 2015;Lachat et al, 2012;Sebanz et al, 2006;Sebanz et al, 2003) have identified cognitive processes that would have gone unnoticed if individuals had been studied in isolation only. For example, Freundlieb et al (2015) examined when participants adopted another's visuospatial perspective.…”

“…In line with this assertion, studies of interacting individuals (Freundlieb et al, 2015;Lachat et al, 2012;Sebanz et al, 2006;Sebanz et al, 2003) have identified cognitive processes that would have gone unnoticed if individuals had been studied in isolation only. For example, Freundlieb et al (2015) examined when participants adopted another's visuospatial perspective. Only if the other was perceived as an intentionally acting agent, participants consistently adopted their visuospatial perspective.…”

Is Implicit Level-2 Visual perspective taking embodied? Perceptual simulation of others’ perspectives is not impaired by motor restriction.

“…These findings may be surprising in light of the proposed link between visual perspective taking and mentalizing and other coordination processes in social interactions (e.g., Batson et al, 1997;Erle & Topolinski, 2015;Tomasello et al, 2005;Mattan, et al, 2016;Freundlieb et al, 2016) and that those with autism find it more difficult to make perceptual judgments from another's visual perspective (Hamilton et al, 2009; for a review, see Pearson, Ropar & Hamilton, 2013). Of course, our task involved people with autistic traits only, without actual diagnoses of ASD.…”

“…This everyday skill allows people to give a passer-by directions so they can plan a route from their own perspective, or work out whether an oncoming driver has noticed them before safely crossing a road, for example. These abilities have been argued to underlie the ability to coordinate actions with others (Freundlieb, Kovács, & Sebanz, 2016), and may form the basis of more sophisticated social abilities such as reasoning about others' beliefs, desires, and goals (Batson, Early, & Salvarani, 1997;Erle & Topolinski, 2015;Tomasello, Carpenter, Call, Behne, & Moll, 2005;Mattan, Rotshtein & Quinn, 2016).…”

“…Recent work has conceptualised perspective taking as a form of perceptual simulation, which inserts the content of another's perspective onto one's own perceptual processes, as if it were one's own perceptual input (Kampis, Parise, Csibra, & Kovács, 2015;Surtees, Apperly, & Samson, 2016;. Such a (quasi-)perceptual representation could then drive one's own action and decision making processes just like own input, explaining the developmental link between visual perspective taking and higher level mentalizing (Batson et al, 1997;Erle & Topolinski, 2015;Hamilton, Brindley & Frith, 2009;Tomasello et al, 2005;Mattan, et al, 2016) and its link to joint action (Freundlieb et al, 2016).…”