The role of domain-general and social mechanisms in Spontaneous Visual Perspective Taking

People's attention is influenced by what others are looking at. To study this phenomenon, Samson et al (2010) devised the Dot Perspective Paradigm (DPP), in which participants are presented with a scene and a cue directs attention towards some targets. This task shows an interference: participants record slower RTs and more errors when the cue is facing away from the targets. To explain this phenomenon, the mentalizing account emphasizes the social relevance of the cue; whereas the domain-general account focuses on its directional features. We proposed a dual-process model which integrates the two accounts consisting of i) an orienting process, sensitive to directional features – such as the posture - and assessed by RTs; and ii) a decisional process sensitive to social features - such as the viewpoint - and assessed by both RTs and errors (Pesimena & Soranzo, 2022). This project aims to further explore and define this model and identify the underlying cognitive mechanisms of Spontaneous VPT.