Cargando…

Why are listeners sometimes (but not always) egocentric? Making inferences about using others’ perspective in referential communication

Theory of Mind (ToM) is the ability to understand others’ mental states, and that these mental states can differ from our own. Although healthy adults have little trouble passing conceptual tests of ToM (e.g., the false belief task [1]), they do not always succeed in using ToM [2,3]. In order to be...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Wang, J. Jessica, Ciranova, Natalia, Woods, Bethany, Apperly, Ian A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7588066/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33104751
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240521
_version_ 1783600304515710976
author Wang, J. Jessica
Ciranova, Natalia
Woods, Bethany
Apperly, Ian A.
author_facet Wang, J. Jessica
Ciranova, Natalia
Woods, Bethany
Apperly, Ian A.
author_sort Wang, J. Jessica
collection PubMed
description Theory of Mind (ToM) is the ability to understand others’ mental states, and that these mental states can differ from our own. Although healthy adults have little trouble passing conceptual tests of ToM (e.g., the false belief task [1]), they do not always succeed in using ToM [2,3]. In order to be successful in referential communication, listeners need to correctly infer the way in which a speaker’s perspective constrains reference and inhibit their own perspective accordingly. However, listeners may require prompts to take these effortful inferential steps. The current study investigated the possibility of embedding prompts in the instructions for listeners to make inference about using a speaker’s perspective. Experiment 1 showed that provision of a clear introductory example of the full chain of inferences resulted in large improvement in performance. Residual egocentric errors suggested that the improvement was not simply due to superior comprehension of the instructions. Experiment 2 further dissociated the effect by placing selective emphasis on making inference about inhibiting listeners’ own perspective versus using the speaker’s perspective. Results showed that only the latter had a significant effect on successful performance. The current findings clearly demonstrated that listeners do not readily make inferences about using speakers’ perspectives, but can do so when prompted.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7588066
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-75880662020-10-30 Why are listeners sometimes (but not always) egocentric? Making inferences about using others’ perspective in referential communication Wang, J. Jessica Ciranova, Natalia Woods, Bethany Apperly, Ian A. PLoS One Research Article Theory of Mind (ToM) is the ability to understand others’ mental states, and that these mental states can differ from our own. Although healthy adults have little trouble passing conceptual tests of ToM (e.g., the false belief task [1]), they do not always succeed in using ToM [2,3]. In order to be successful in referential communication, listeners need to correctly infer the way in which a speaker’s perspective constrains reference and inhibit their own perspective accordingly. However, listeners may require prompts to take these effortful inferential steps. The current study investigated the possibility of embedding prompts in the instructions for listeners to make inference about using a speaker’s perspective. Experiment 1 showed that provision of a clear introductory example of the full chain of inferences resulted in large improvement in performance. Residual egocentric errors suggested that the improvement was not simply due to superior comprehension of the instructions. Experiment 2 further dissociated the effect by placing selective emphasis on making inference about inhibiting listeners’ own perspective versus using the speaker’s perspective. Results showed that only the latter had a significant effect on successful performance. The current findings clearly demonstrated that listeners do not readily make inferences about using speakers’ perspectives, but can do so when prompted. Public Library of Science 2020-10-26 /pmc/articles/PMC7588066/ /pubmed/33104751 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240521 Text en © 2020 Wang et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Wang, J. Jessica
Ciranova, Natalia
Woods, Bethany
Apperly, Ian A.
Why are listeners sometimes (but not always) egocentric? Making inferences about using others’ perspective in referential communication
title Why are listeners sometimes (but not always) egocentric? Making inferences about using others’ perspective in referential communication
title_full Why are listeners sometimes (but not always) egocentric? Making inferences about using others’ perspective in referential communication
title_fullStr Why are listeners sometimes (but not always) egocentric? Making inferences about using others’ perspective in referential communication
title_full_unstemmed Why are listeners sometimes (but not always) egocentric? Making inferences about using others’ perspective in referential communication
title_short Why are listeners sometimes (but not always) egocentric? Making inferences about using others’ perspective in referential communication
title_sort why are listeners sometimes (but not always) egocentric? making inferences about using others’ perspective in referential communication
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7588066/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33104751
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240521
work_keys_str_mv AT wangjjessica whyarelistenerssometimesbutnotalwaysegocentricmakinginferencesaboutusingothersperspectiveinreferentialcommunication
AT ciranovanatalia whyarelistenerssometimesbutnotalwaysegocentricmakinginferencesaboutusingothersperspectiveinreferentialcommunication
AT woodsbethany whyarelistenerssometimesbutnotalwaysegocentricmakinginferencesaboutusingothersperspectiveinreferentialcommunication
AT apperlyiana whyarelistenerssometimesbutnotalwaysegocentricmakinginferencesaboutusingothersperspectiveinreferentialcommunication