Cole Geoff G, Atkinson Mark A, D'Souza Antonia D C, Smith Daniel T
Centre for Brain Science, University of Essex, Colchester CO4 3SQ, UK.
Department of Psychology, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QJ, UK.
Vision (Basel). 2017 Jun 16;1(2):17. doi: 10.3390/vision1020017.
A number of social cognition studies posit that humans spontaneously compute the viewpoint of other individuals. This is based on experiments showing that responses are shorter when a human agent, located in a visual display, can see the stimuli relevant to the observer's task. Similarly, responses are slower when the agent cannot see the task-relevant stimuli. We tested the spontaneous perspective taking theory by incorporating it within two classic visual cognition paradigms (i.e., the flanker effect and the Simon effect), as well as reassessing its role in the gaze cueing effect. Results showed that these phenomena (e.g., the Simon effect) are not modulated according to whether a gazing agent can see the critical stimuli or not. We also examined the claim that previous results attributed to spontaneous perspective taking are due to the gazing agent's ability to shift attention laterally. Results found no evidence of this. Overall, these data challenge both the spontaneous perspective taking theory, as well as the attentional shift hypothesis.
许多社会认知研究认为，人类会自发地计算他人的观点。这是基于一些实验，这些实验表明，当视觉展示中的人类主体能够看到与观察者任务相关的刺激时，反应会更快。同样，当主体看不到与任务相关的刺激时，反应会更慢。我们通过将自发视角采择理论纳入两个经典的视觉认知范式（即侧翼效应和西蒙效应）来测试该理论，并重新评估其在注视线索效应中的作用。结果表明，这些现象（如西蒙效应）并不会根据注视主体是否能看到关键刺激而受到调节。我们还检验了先前归因于自发视角采择的结果是由于注视主体横向转移注意力的能力这一说法。结果并未发现这方面的证据。总体而言，这些数据对自发视角采择理论以及注意力转移假说都提出了挑战。
