ABSTRACT

Understanding others’ perspectives and integrating this knowledge in social interactions is challenging for young children; even adults struggle with this skill. While young children show the capacity to understand what others can and cannot see under supportive laboratory conditions, more research is necessary to understand how children implement their perspective-taking (PT) skill during interactions and which socio-cognitive skills support their ability to do so. This preregistered study examined children’s Level 1 visual PT in a real-time social interaction and tested whether social-cognitive skills (focusing on inhibition of imitation) predicted PT. Thirty-six 3-year-old children (mean age: 37.3 months) participated in a PT task and responded implicitly (via eye gaze) and explicitly (via toy choice) to situations where their communicative partner could see some objects but not others. Three-year-olds demonstrated sensitivity to another’s perspective via implicit responses, but did not consistently take their partner’s perspective into account in their actions when considering objects their partner could not see. Contrary to adult findings, children who struggled to inhibit imitating (those more affected by another’s actions) demonstrated better PT, again when considering objects outside their partner’s sight. Thus, 3-year-olds’ sensitivity to others’ perspectives was robust, while acting on PT knowledge may still be developing; further, children more affected by another’s actions demonstrated improved PT skills.

摘要

理解他人的观点并将这些知识整合到社交互动中对幼儿来说是一项挑战；即使是成年人也很难掌握这项技能。虽然幼儿有能力在支持性实验室条件下理解其他人可以看到和不能看到的东西，但需要更多的研究来了解儿童在互动中如何运用他们的观点采择 (PT) 技能以及哪些社会认知技能支持他们这样做的能力. 这项预先注册的研究在实时社交互动中检查了儿童的 1 级视觉 PT，并测试了社交认知技能（专注于抑制模仿）是否预测了 PT。36 名 3 岁儿童（平均年龄：37. 3 个月）参与了一项 PT 任务，并对他们的交流伙伴可以看到某些物体但不能看到其他物体的情况做出隐式（通过眼睛凝视）和明确（通过玩具选择）的反应。三岁儿童通过内隐反应表现出对他人观点的敏感性，但在考虑伴侣看不到的物体时，他们在行动中并没有始终考虑伴侣的观点。与成人的发现相反，努力抑制模仿的儿童（那些更受他人行为影响的儿童）表现出更好的 PT，同样在考虑伴侣视线之外的物体时。因此，3 岁儿童对其他人观点的敏感性很强，而 但在考虑伴侣看不到的物体时，他们在行动中并没有始终考虑伴侣的观点。与成人的发现相反，努力抑制模仿的儿童（那些更受他人行为影响的儿童）表现出更好的 PT，同样在考虑伴侣视线之外的物体时。因此，3 岁儿童对其他人观点的敏感性很强，而 但在考虑伴侣看不到的物体时，他们在行动中并没有始终考虑伴侣的观点。与成人的发现相反，努力抑制模仿的儿童（那些更受他人行为影响的儿童）表现出更好的 PT，同样在考虑伴侣视线之外的物体时。因此，3 岁儿童对其他人观点的敏感性很强，而对 PT 知识采取行动可能仍在发展中；此外，受他人行为影响更大的儿童表现出更好的 PT 技能。