Prosocial behavior and perspective-taking of mentally retarded and nonretarded children

Fourteen nonretarded second-grade children, 14 EMR elementary-aged children, and 14 TMR adolescents, all of preoperational cognitive level on Piagetian tasks, were compared on measures of perceptual perspective-taking, empathy (affective perspective-taking), and helping (prosocial behavior). In their performance on a simple task, subjects did not vary on any of these measures. Successful perspective-taking was found to be task specific. The expected association between ability to empathize and helping was found only for nonretarded children. Results were discussed in terms of both cognitive and social factors affecting behavior.