Spatial perspective taking and referential communication skills in the elderly: a training study.

A training program was designed to test the hypothesis that social interaction or, more specifically, the experience of taking the role of another in social problem solving situations and communicative activities would facilitate elderly adults' spatial perspective taking and referential communication skills. The extent to which such social interaction and role taking practice reduced measured spatial and communicative egocentrism was examined by comparing the performances of 36 elderly participants across three conditions: Training, Placebo and Control. The results provided strong support for this hypothesis and were discussed in terms of their implications for socio-ecological context explanations.