Perspective tracking in progress: do not disturb.
Two experiments tested the hypothesis that indirect false-belief tests allow participants to track a protagonist's perspective uninterruptedly, whereas direct false-belief tests disrupt the process of perspective tracking in various ways. For this purpose, adults' performance was compared on indirect and direct false-belief tests by means of continuous eye-tracking. Experiment 1 confirmed that the false-belief question used in direct tests disrupts perspective tracking relative to what is observed in an indirect test. Experiment 2 confirmed that perspective tracking is a continuous process that can be easily disrupted in adults by a subtle visual manipulation in both indirect and direct tests. These results call for a closer analysis of the demands of the false-belief tasks that have been used in developmental research.
University College London, United Kingdom, CSMN, Oslo, Norway. Electronic address: p.rubio-fernandez@ucl.ac.uk.
Paula
P
Rubio-Fernández
D001288:Attention; D053483:Eye Movement Measurements; D005133:Eye Movements; D006801:Humans; D011930:Reaction Time; D056345:Theory of Mind
Indirect and direct false-belief tests; Perspective tracking; Theory of Mind