title: Theory of mind and wisdom: The development of different forms of perspective-taking in late adulthood.
abstract: How does perspective-taking develop over the lifespan? This question has been investigated in two separate research traditions, dealing with theory of mind (ToM) and wisdom, respectively. Operating in almost complete isolation from each other, and using rather different conceptual approaches, these two traditions have produced seemingly contradictory results: While perspective-taking has been consistently found to decline in old age in ToM research, studies on wisdom have mostly found that perspective-taking remains constant or sometimes even increases in later adulthood. This study sought to integrate these two lines of research and clarify the seemingly contradictory patterns of findings by systematically testing for both forms of perspective-taking and their potential cognitive foundations. The results revealed (1) the dissociation in developmental patterns between ToM perspective-taking (declining with age) and wisdom-related perspective-taking (no decline with age) also held - documented here for the first time - in one and the same sample of younger versus older adults; (2) this dissociation was of limited generality: It did not (or only partly) hold once the material of the two types of tasks was more closely matched; and (3) the divergent developmental patterns of ToM perspective-taking versus wisdom-related perspective-taking could be accounted for to some degree by the fact that only TOM perspective-taking was related to developmental changes in fluid intelligence.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, University of Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Hannes
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rakoczy
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, University of Göttingen, Germany.|Institute of Psychology, University Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Raphaela
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wandt
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, University Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Stefanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, University Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Jana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nowak
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, University Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Ute
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Kunzmann
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D056345:Theory of Mind; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: ageing; perspective-taking; social cognition; theory of mind; wisdom