Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK.
Department of Psychology, Brunel University, UK.
Cognition. 2018 Nov;180:1-9. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2018.05.020. Epub 2018 Jul 4.
A number of authors have suggested that the computation of another person's visual perspective occurs automatically. In the current work we examined whether perspective-taking is indeed automatic or more likely to be due to mechanisms associated with conscious control. Participants viewed everyday scenes in which a single human model looked towards a target object. Importantly, the model's view of the object was either visible or occluded by a physical barrier (e.g., briefcase). Results showed that when observers were given five seconds to freely view the scenes, eye movements were faster to fixate the object when the model could see it compared to when it was occluded. By contrast, when observers were required to rapidly discriminate a target superimposed upon the same object no such visibility effect occurred. We also employed the barrier procedure together with the most recent method (i.e., the ambiguous number paradigm) to have been employed in assessing the perspective-taking theory. Results showed that the model's gaze facilitated responses even when this agent could not see the critical stimuli. We argue that although humans do take into account the perspective of other people this does not occur automatically.
许多作者认为，计算他人的视觉视角是自动发生的。在当前的工作中，我们研究了视角转换是否确实是自动的，还是更可能是由于与意识控制相关的机制。参与者观看了日常生活场景，其中一个单一的人体模型看向一个目标物体。重要的是，模型对物体的视图要么可见，要么被物理屏障遮挡（例如，公文包）。结果表明，当观察者有五秒钟的时间自由观看场景时，当模型可以看到物体时，眼睛的注视点比被遮挡时更快地固定在物体上。相比之下，当观察者被要求快速识别叠加在同一物体上的目标时，就不会出现这种可见性效应。我们还采用了障碍程序，以及最近用于评估视角转换理论的方法（即，模糊数字范式）。结果表明，即使该代理无法看到关键刺激，模型的注视也会促进反应。我们认为，尽管人类确实会考虑其他人的视角，但这不是自动发生的。
