Training self‐other distinction facilitates perspective taking in young children

Abstract

AbstractPeople sometimes commit ‘egocentric errors’, failing to ignore their own perspective when interpreting others' communication. Training imitation‐inhibition, when participants perform the opposite action from another person, facilitates subsequent perspective‐taking in adults. This study tested whether imitation‐inhibition training also facilitates perspective‐taking in 3‐ to 6‐year‐olds, an age where egocentric perspective may be particularly influential. Children participated in a 10‐min imitation‐inhibition, imitation, or non‐social‐inhibition training (white, n = 25 per condition, 33 female, period: 2018–2021), then the communicative‐perspective‐taking Director task. Training had a significant effect (F(2, 71) = 3.316, p = .042, η2 = .085): on critical trials, the imitation‐inhibition‐group selected the correct object more often than the other groups. Imitation‐inhibition training specifically enhanced the perspective‐taking process possibly by highlighting the distinction between self and other.