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01-07-2016 | Original Article

The relation between spatial perspective taking and inhibitory control in 6-year-old children

Auteurs: Andrea Frick, Denise Baumeler

Gepubliceerd in: Psychological Research | Uitgave 4/2017

Abstract

Developmental research on spatial perspective taking has shown that young children are able to solve perspective-taking problems under favorable circumstances, but they have difficulties succeeding in classic tasks involving a conflict between one’s own perspective and that of another observer. To date, little is known about the reasons for young children’s difficulties in dealing with incongruent perspectives. Based on the assumption that one’s own perspective has to be ignored to imagine someone else’s perspective, it was investigated whether perspective taking is related to inhibitory control in 6-year-olds (N = 140). An adapted version of the ‘Fruit Stroop task’, appropriate for preschool children, was used to assess inhibitory control. Perspective taking was assessed using the ‘Perspective-Taking Test for Children’. Other spatial and nonspatial abilities were assessed to investigate the specificity of the relation. Results showed a significant correlation between perspective taking and inhibitory control, even when controlled for age, verbal-IQ, and socio-economic status. However, no significant correlations between inhibition and other spatial abilities were found, indicating a specific relation between inhibition and perspective taking. A linear regression analysis showed that, even after accounting for effects of control variables as well as other mental transformation abilities, inhibition accounted for a significant part of the variance in perspective-taking performance. The present findings provide valuable information on what contributes to individual differences in perspective taking, which is an important aspect of everyday cognition and bears relevance for reasoning in technical domains.

vorige artikel Using space to represent categories: insights from gaze position

volgende artikel Self-estimation of physical ability in stepping over an obstacle is not mediated by visual height perception: a comparison between young and older adults

Kolmogorov–Smirnov tests suggested that normal distributions could not be assumed for all variables. Therefore, correlation and regression analyses were also run using the bootstrapping method (Efron & Tibshirani, 1993), which yielded the same significant results at the α- level of 5 %.

We also calculated an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) with inhibition performance added as a continuous variable. This analysis showed the same main effects of objects, F(2, 266) = 13.03, p < 0.001, η ² = 0.09, angles, F(2, 266) = 44.29, p < 0.001, η ² = 0.25, and inhibition, F(1, 133) = 8.84, p < 0.01, η ² = 0.06, as well as interactions between objects and angles, F(4, 532) = 6.81, p < 0.001, η ² = 0.05, and between objects, angles, and inhibition, F(4, 532) = 4.29, p < 0.01, η ² = 0.03. There was a trend for an interaction between inhibition and objects, F(2, 266) = 2.55, p = 0.08, η ² = 0.02.

An ANCOVA with inhibition as covariate showed a main effect of objects, F(2, 266) = 12.94, p < 0.001, η ² = 0.09, as well as an interaction between inhibition and objects, F(2, 266) = 3.36, p < 0.05, η ² = 0.03.

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Titel: The relation between spatial perspective taking and inhibitory control in 6-year-old children
Auteurs: Andrea Frick
Denise Baumeler
Publicatiedatum: 01-07-2016
Uitgeverij: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Gepubliceerd in: Psychological Research / Uitgave 4/2017
Print ISSN: 0340-0727
Elektronisch ISSN: 1430-2772
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-016-0785-y

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