Jove
Visualize
Contact Us

Related Concept Videos

Theory of Attribution I: Correspondent Inference Theory01:15

Theory of Attribution I: Correspondent Inference Theory

Correspondent inference theory, proposed by Jones and Davis in 1965, seeks to explain how individuals infer stable personality traits from observed behaviors. It suggests that people attribute actions to underlying dispositions rather than external circumstances, particularly when the behavior appears intentional and socially significant.Voluntary Behavior and Dispositional AttributionAccording to this theory, individuals are more likely to attribute behavior to personal traits when it appears...
Attribution Theory00:56

Attribution Theory

Behavior is a product of both the situation (e.g., cultural influences, social roles, and the presence of bystanders) and of the person (e.g., personality characteristics). Subfields of psychology tend to focus on one influence or behavior over others. Situationism is the view that our behavior and actions are determined by our immediate environment and surroundings. In contrast, dispositionism holds that our behavior is determined by internal factors (Heider, 1958). An internal factor is an...
Theory of Attribution II: Kelley's Covariation Theory01:29

Theory of Attribution II: Kelley's Covariation Theory

Attribution theory plays a crucial role in social psychology, helping to explain how individuals interpret the causes of behavior. One prominent model within this field is Harold Kelley's covariation theory, which provides a systematic approach to determining whether internal traits or external circumstances drive a person's actions. The model posits that individuals rely on three key types of information—consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness—to make these judgments.Consensus: Comparing...
Actor-Observer Effect01:23

Actor-Observer Effect

The actor-observer effect, a cognitive bias closely linked to the fundamental attribution error, refers to the tendency for individuals to attribute their behavior to external, situational factors while explaining others’ behavior in terms of internal, dispositional traits. This asymmetry in attribution significantly influences social perception and judgment.Cognitive Mechanisms Behind the EffectTwo primary psychological mechanisms contribute to the actor-observer effect: differences in visual...
Fundamental Attribution Error01:14

Fundamental Attribution Error

According to some social psychologists, people tend to overemphasize internal factors as explanations—or attributions—for the behavior of other people. They tend to assume that the behavior of another person is a trait of that person, and to underestimate the power of the situation on the behavior of others. They tend to fail to recognize when the behavior of another is due to situational variables, and thus to the person’s state. This erroneous assumption is called the fundamental attribution...
Attribution01:26

Attribution

In social interactions, individuals frequently seek to understand the motivations and causes behind others' behaviors. This fundamental aspect of social perception, known as attribution, plays a crucial role in shaping interpersonal relationships and guiding future actions. Attribution refers to the cognitive process through which people infer the reasons behind others' behaviors, allowing them to assess character traits, intentions, and situational influences.Attribution Theory and Its...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

The importance of context information for the spatial specificity of gaze cueing.

Attention, perception & psychophysics·2013
Same author

On the relation between spontaneous perspective taking and other visuospatial processes.

Memory & cognition·2013
Same author

I see what you mean: how attentional selection is shaped by ascribing intentions to others.

PloS one·2012
Same author

Influences of spontaneous perspective taking on spatial and identity processing of faces.

Social cognitive and affective neuroscience·2012
Same author

Ocular tracking of biological and nonbiological motion: the effect of instructed agency.

Psychonomic bulletin & review·2011
Same author

Assimilation and contrast: the two sides of specific interference between action and perception.

Psychological research·2011
Same journal

Mind wandering during first- and foreign-language reading.

Psychonomic bulletin & review·2026
Same journal

Lexical word processing is unaffected by rapid invisible frequency tagging in reading: Evidence from eye movements.

Psychonomic bulletin & review·2026
Same journal

Anxiety modulates voluntary attentional orienting to emotional gaze cues: Eye movements for pro- and anti-saccades.

Psychonomic bulletin & review·2026
Same journal

Faster key-press responses to front vowels than back vowels when matching heard vowels with represented vowels.

Psychonomic bulletin & review·2026
Same journal

Testing the interleaving effect without response bias: A forced-choice reevaluation of Kornell and Bjork (2008).

Psychonomic bulletin & review·2026
Same journal

The impact of social interaction on abstract concepts.

Psychonomic bulletin & review·2026
See all related articles
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 18, 2026

Visualization Method for Proprioceptive Drift on a 2D Plane Using Support Vector Machine
07:05

Visualization Method for Proprioceptive Drift on a 2D Plane Using Support Vector Machine

Published on: October 27, 2016

Agency attribution and visuospatial perspective taking.

Jan Zwickel1

  • 1Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany. zwickel@psy.uni-muenchen.de

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
|December 8, 2009
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Observing animated triangles acting and attributing mental states led participants to adopt the triangles' visuospatial perspective. This perspective-taking effect strengthened with increased agency and mental state attributions.

More Related Videos

Virtual Hand with Ambiguous Movement between the Self and Other Origin: Sense of Ownership and 'Other-Produced' Agency
08:01

Virtual Hand with Ambiguous Movement between the Self and Other Origin: Sense of Ownership and 'Other-Produced' Agency

Published on: October 28, 2020

Creating Virtual-hand and Virtual-face Illusions to Investigate Self-representation
06:53

Creating Virtual-hand and Virtual-face Illusions to Investigate Self-representation

Published on: March 1, 2017

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 18, 2026

Visualization Method for Proprioceptive Drift on a 2D Plane Using Support Vector Machine
07:05

Visualization Method for Proprioceptive Drift on a 2D Plane Using Support Vector Machine

Published on: October 27, 2016

Virtual Hand with Ambiguous Movement between the Self and Other Origin: Sense of Ownership and 'Other-Produced' Agency
08:01

Virtual Hand with Ambiguous Movement between the Self and Other Origin: Sense of Ownership and 'Other-Produced' Agency

Published on: October 28, 2020

Creating Virtual-hand and Virtual-face Illusions to Investigate Self-representation
06:53

Creating Virtual-hand and Virtual-face Illusions to Investigate Self-representation

Published on: March 1, 2017

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Social Cognition
  • Neuroscience

Background:

  • Understanding how humans interpret the actions and intentions of others is fundamental to social cognition.
  • The Frith-Happé animations are a well-established paradigm for studying agency and mental state attribution.
  • Previous research suggests a link between attributing agency and understanding others' perspectives.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether attributing agency and mental states to animated shapes influences visuospatial perspective-taking.
  • To determine if the degree of agency and mental state attribution correlates with the strength of perspective adoption.

Main Methods:

  • Participants viewed animated triangles (Frith-Happé animations) designed to evoke different levels of agency and mental state interpretations.
  • A speeded spatial decision task was administered while participants watched the animations.
  • Reaction times were measured based on whether the required spatial response matched the participant's perspective or the triangle's perspective.

Main Results:

  • Reaction times were significantly longer when participants had to adopt a different perspective than their own (i.e., the triangle's perspective).
  • This perspective-taking cost increased as the animations required stronger agency interpretations to be understood.
  • The effect was also more pronounced for animations previously shown to elicit mental state attributions.

Conclusions:

  • Interpreting an agent's behavior, even in a simplified context like animated triangles, co-occurs with adopting that agent's visuospatial perspective.
  • This finding supports the integration of action perception, intention understanding, and embodied perspective-taking in social cognition.
  • The study demonstrates that basic social-cognitive processes can be elicited by non-biological agents.