Online level-2 perspective taking for newly learnt symbols.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Social Cognition
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Humans spontaneously consider others' viewpoints on object identity in online tasks.
• Evidence suggests this involves representing not just perspective discrepancy but also perspective content (level-2 perspective taking/L2PT).
• Prior studies used culturally familiar symbols, leaving open whether L2PT requires extensive background knowledge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if level-2 perspective taking (L2PT) is limited to familiar objects or extends to novel symbols.
• To examine the influence of symbol familiarity and complexity on spontaneous L2PT.
• To determine if L2PT requires pre-existing object knowledge.

Main Methods:

• Compared L2PT in groups verifying Arabic numbers versus newly learned symbol-label pairs.
• Utilized tasks with symmetrical and asymmetrical stimuli, including joint (partner present) and individual conditions.
• Manipulated symbol complexity in subsequent experiments (2a, 2b) using novel symbols.

Main Results:

• An interference effect, indicative of L2PT, was observed in both number and symbol groups.
• The L2PT interference effect remained stable for familiar numbers but diminished over time for novel symbols.
• Increased complexity of novel symbols reduced or eliminated the L2PT interference effect.

Conclusions:

• Online L2PT is not restricted to objects with which participants have prior identification proficiency.
• The L2PT effect is sensitive to the processing demands of novel stimuli, diminishing with increased symbol complexity.
• Spontaneous perspective-taking abilities can adapt to novel symbolic systems, but with limitations based on complexity.