Thomas Emily, Murphy Mary, Pitt Rebecca, Rivers Angela, Leavens David A
Department of Psychology, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer, East Sussex, UK.
J Comp Psychol. 2008 Nov;122(4):428-36. doi: 10.1037/0735-7036.122.4.428.
Povinelli, Bierschwale, and Cech (1999) reported that when tested on a visual attention task, the behavior of juvenile chimpanzees did not support a high-level understanding of visual attention. This study replicates their research using adult humans and aims to investigate the validity of their experimental design. Participants were trained to respond to pointing cues given by an experimenter, and then tested on their ability to locate hidden objects from visual cues. Povinelli et al.'s assertion that the generalization of pointing to gaze is indicative of a high-level framework was not supported by our findings: Training improved performance only on initial probe trials when the experimenter's gaze was not directed at the baited cup. Furthermore, participants performed above chance on such trials, the same result exhibited by chimpanzees and used as evidence by Povinelli et al. to support a low-level framework. These findings, together with the high performance of participants in an incongruent condition, in which the experimenter pointed to or gazed at an unbaited container, challenge the validity of their experimental design.
波维内利、比尔施瓦尔和切赫（1999年）报告称，在一项视觉注意力任务测试中，幼年黑猩猩的行为并不支持对视觉注意力的高级理解。本研究使用成年人类重复了他们的研究，旨在调查其实验设计的有效性。参与者接受训练以对实验者给出的指示线索做出反应，然后测试他们从视觉线索中定位隐藏物体的能力。我们的研究结果并不支持波维内利等人的断言，即指示到注视的泛化表明存在一个高级框架：只有在实验者的目光没有指向诱饵杯的初始探测试验中，训练才提高了表现。此外，参与者在这些试验中的表现高于随机水平，黑猩猩也表现出同样的结果，波维内利等人将其用作支持低级框架的证据。这些发现，连同参与者在不一致条件下的高表现（即实验者指向或注视未放置诱饵的容器），对他们实验设计的有效性提出了挑战。
