Examining perspective-taking in the severely head-injured

Although described anecdotally in brain-impaired individuals, the ability or inability to take the viewpoint of another person has not been studied directly. After a preliminary study (n = 38 normals) to determine an appropriate social type for imitation, perspective taking ability was examined in severely head-injured (n = 15) and control (n = 15) subjects by asking them to take the role of a salesperson on the MMPI and a semantic differential mood scale. Subjects also rated their own ability to understand the expressive behaviour of others via the Revised Self-monitoring Scale. Normals and head-injured low self-monitors were able to successfully imitate the predicted 4-9 profile of a 'salesperson', but head-injured high self-monitors were largely unsuccessful. Those head-injured subjects who were unable to take the perspective of the prototypical other may have used themselves as a reference point as evidenced by semantic differential ratings, and may have overestimated their ability to understand the behaviour of others on the Revised Self-monitoring Scale. The findings are consistent with brain-behaviour explanations linking egocentric thought, over-evaluation of ability, and flexibility of problem-solving to frontal lobe functioning.