title: When Far Becomes Near.
abstract: On many occasions, people spontaneously or deliberately take the perspective of a person facing them rather than their own perspective. How is this done? Using a spatial perspective task in which participants were asked to identify objects at specific locations, we found that self-perspective judgments were faster for objects presented to the right, rather than the left, and for objects presented closer to the participants' own bodies. Strikingly, taking the opposing perspective of another person led to a reversal (i.e., remapping) of these effects, with reference to the other person's position (Experiment 1). A remapping of spatial relations was also observed when an empty chair replaced the other person (Experiment 2), but not when access to the other viewpoint was blocked (Experiment 3). Thus, when the spatial scene allows a physically feasible but opposing point of view, people respond as if their own bodies were in that place. Imagination can thus overcome perception.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Psychology, University of Turin.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cavallo
authors.affiliation: 2 Cognition, Motion and Neuroscience Unit, Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italia.
authors.forename: Caterina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ansuini
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Psychology, University of Turin.|3 Department of Psychology, McGill University.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Capozzi
authors.affiliation: 4 Department of Psychology, Stanford University.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Tversky
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Psychology, University of Turin.|2 Cognition, Motion and Neuroscience Unit, Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italia.
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Becchio
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination / Q000502:physiology; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D012649:Self Concept; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: recomputing; remapping; spatial perspective taking; spatial relations