When Far Becomes Near

Abstract

On many occasions, people spontaneously or deliberately take the perspective of a person facing them rather than their own perspective. How is this done? Using a spatial perspective task in which participants were asked to identify objects at specific locations, we found that self-perspective judgments were faster for objects presented to the right, rather than the left, and for objects presented closer to the participants' own bodies. Strikingly, taking the opposing perspective of another person led to a reversal (i.e., remapping) of these effects, with reference to the other person's position (Experiment 1). A remapping of spatial relations was also observed when an empty chair replaced the other person (Experiment 2), but not when access to the other viewpoint was blocked (Experiment 3). Thus, when the spatial scene allows a physically feasible but opposing point of view, people respond as if their own bodies were in that place. Imagination can thus overcome perception.

No advantage for remembering horizontal over vertical spatial locations learned from a single viewpoint

“…In addition, humans often mentally take contra-aligned perspectives in the horizontal, but not in the vertical plane. For instance, humans often take the spatial perspective of another person in interpersonal interactions (Cavallo, Ansuini, Capozzi, Tversky, & Becchio, 2017 ; Mainwaring, Tversky, Ohgishi, & Schiano, 2003 ; Schober, 1993 ; Tversky, Lee, & Mainwaring, 1999 ), which most likely take place in the horizontal plane and often with persons facing them (contra-aligned to themselves). Conceivably, such a greater extent of experience in spatial perspective taking might improve the efficiency in transforming an encoded perspective to infer the spatial relations from nonexperienced contra-aligned perspectives during retrieval.…”

Taking Others' Perspectives Enhances Situation Awareness in the Smart Home Interface

“…The novelty of the current study is that we confirmed that even in the smart home interface, a virtual environment, we still have the propensity to adopt the perspective of others. Considerable research has shown that we adopt others' perspectives as a result of the mere presence of others in a shared physical realm (Tversky and Hard, 2009;Kockler et al, 2010;Freundlieb et al, 2016;Furlanetto et al, 2016;Cavallo et al, 2017;Quesque et al, 2018). This propensity may be extended to the realm of mental activity, such as thinking and reading (Freundlieb et al, 2018), and even agentic features of inanimate objects such as an arrow (Zwickel, 2009;Heyes, 2014;Santiesteban et al, 2014).…”

“…According to Tversky and Hard (2009), it is natural to take an egocentric reference frame, which refers to viewing the world through the perspective of the self. However, numerous recent studies have revealed that we adopt the visuospatial perspective of others when sharing physical space with others (Tversky and Hard, 2009;Kockler et al, 2010;Freundlieb et al, 2016;Furlanetto et al, 2016;Cavallo et al, 2017;Quesque et al, 2018). For example, we may explain the location of an object based on the perspective of another person sitting across from you by referring it to it as "the apple on your left" instead of "the apple on my right" (Cavallo et al, 2017).…”

“…However, numerous recent studies have revealed that we adopt the visuospatial perspective of others when sharing physical space with others (Tversky and Hard, 2009;Kockler et al, 2010;Freundlieb et al, 2016;Furlanetto et al, 2016;Cavallo et al, 2017;Quesque et al, 2018). For example, we may explain the location of an object based on the perspective of another person sitting across from you by referring it to it as "the apple on your left" instead of "the apple on my right" (Cavallo et al, 2017). This is called the spontaneous visuospatial perspective taking (i.e., VSP taking; Tversky and Hard, 2009;Freundlieb et al, 2016Freundlieb et al, , 2018Cavallo et al, 2017).…”

“…For example, we may explain the location of an object based on the perspective of another person sitting across from you by referring it to it as "the apple on your left" instead of "the apple on my right" (Cavallo et al, 2017). This is called the spontaneous visuospatial perspective taking (i.e., VSP taking; Tversky and Hard, 2009;Freundlieb et al, 2016Freundlieb et al, , 2018Cavallo et al, 2017). This VSP taking is divided into two levels.…”