title: Prioritization of self-relevant perspectives in ageing.
abstract: This study investigated whether age-related sensitivity to self-relevance may benefit perspective taking, despite generally poorer perspective-taking capacity in older adults. In one perceptual matching task and two visual perspective-taking paradigms, we examined age differences in sensitivity to avatars representing self and other. In the matching task, older (60-83 years) and younger (18-20 years) adults were similarly biased toward the self- versus other-associated avatar. In the perspective-taking tasks, participants viewed these avatars within a virtual room. Task-relevant perspectives were either the same (i.e., congruent) or different (i.e., incongruent). In the 3PP-3PP task, both avatars were present, and participants adopted the perspective of one or the other. As in the matching task, young and old were similarly biased toward the self-associated avatar. However, age differences emerged in the 1PP-3PP task, which presented only one avatar per trial (varying between self and other), and participants responded based on their own first-person perspective or the avatar's. In summary, age modulated the ability to take perspectives primarily when participants' own first-person perspective was task relevant. Relative to younger adults, older adults prioritized the self (vs. other) avatar more during initial perspective computation and the first-person (vs. third-person) perspective more when selecting between incongruent perspectives.
authors.affiliation: a School of Psychology , University of Birmingham , Birmingham , UK.
authors.forename: Bradley D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Mattan
authors.affiliation: a School of Psychology , University of Birmingham , Birmingham , UK.|b Department of Psychology , DePaul University , Chicago , IL , USA.
authors.forename: Kimberly A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Quinn
authors.affiliation: a School of Psychology , University of Birmingham , Birmingham , UK.
authors.forename: Stephanie L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Acaster
authors.affiliation: a School of Psychology , University of Birmingham , Birmingham , UK.
authors.forename: Rebecca M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Jennings
authors.affiliation: a School of Psychology , University of Birmingham , Birmingham , UK.
authors.forename: Pia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rotshtein
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001245:Association Learning; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012649:Self Concept; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: First-person versus third-person; Self-prioritization; Self-tagging; Social–cognitive ageing; Visual perspective taking