by John Michael, Thomas Wolf, Clément Letesson, Stephen A. Butterfill, Joshua Skewes Jakob Hohwy
---Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance
44(5), pp. 693-702
--- links: external [doi: 10.1037/xhp0000486]
Previous research using the dot-perspective task has produced evidence that humans may be equipped with a mechanism that spontaneously tracks others’ gaze direction and thereby acquires information about what they can see. Other findings, however, support the alternative hypothesis that a spatial-cuing mechanism underpins the effect observed in the dot-perspective task. To adjudicate between these hypotheses, we developed a double-cuing version of Posner’s (1980) spatial-cuing paradigm to be implemented in the dot-perspective task, and conducted 3 experiments in which we manipulated stimulus-onset asynchrony, as well as secondary task demands. Crucially, the 2 conflicting hypotheses generated divergent patterns of predictions across these experimental conditions. Our results support the hypothesis of an automatic perspective-taking mechanism.