scholarly journals Reasoning About Visibility in Mirrors: A Comparison Between a Human Observer and a Camera

Perception ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (8) ◽  
pp. 821-832 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Bertamini ◽  
Alessandro Soranzo
Keyword(s):  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Attention Allocation ◽  
Human Observer ◽  
Social Mechanisms ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Social Perspective Taking ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
The Social ◽  
Automatic Attention

Human observers make errors when predicting what is visible in a mirror. This is true for perception with real mirrors as well as for reasoning about mirrors shown in diagrams. We created an illustration of a room, a top-down view, with a mirror on a wall and objects (nails) on the opposite wall. The task was to select which nails were visible in the mirror from a given position (viewpoint). To study the importance of the social nature of the viewpoint, we divided the sample ( N = 108) in two groups. One group ( n = 54) were tested with a scene in which there was the image of a person. The other group ( n = 54) were tested with the same scene but with a camera replacing the person. Participants were instructed to think about what would be captured by a camera on a tripod. This manipulation tests the effect of social perspective-taking in reasoning about mirrors. As predicted, performance on the task shows an overestimation of what can be seen in a mirror and a bias to underestimate the role of the different viewpoints, that is, a tendency to treat the mirror as if it captures information independently of viewpoint. In terms of the comparison between person and camera, there were more errors for the camera, suggesting an advantage for evaluating a human viewpoint as opposed to an artificial viewpoint. We suggest that social mechanisms may be involved in perspective-taking in reasoning rather than in automatic attention allocation.

scholarly journals The Role of Perspective Taking on Attention: A Review of the Special Issue on the Reflexive Attentional Shift Phenomenon

Vision ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriele Pesimena ◽  
Christopher J. Wilson ◽  
Marco Bertamini ◽  
Alessandro Soranzo
Keyword(s):  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Social Characteristics ◽  
Cognitive Resources ◽  
Social Mechanisms ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Social Relevance ◽  
Auditory Cues ◽  
The Social ◽  
Automatic Attention

Attention is a process that alters how cognitive resources are allocated, and it allows individuals to efficiently process information at the attended location. The presence of visual or auditory cues in the environment can direct the focus of attention toward certain stimuli even if the cued stimuli are not the individual’s primary target. Samson et al. demonstrated that seeing another person in the scene (i.e., a person-like cue) caused a delay in responding to target stimuli not visible to that person: “alter-centric intrusion.” This phenomenon, they argue, is dependent upon the fact that the cue used resembled a person as opposed to a more generic directional indicator. The characteristics of the cue are the core of the debate of this special issue. Some maintain that the perceptual-directional characteristics of the cue are sufficient to generate the bias while others argue that the cuing is stronger when the cue has social characteristics (relates to what another individual can perceive). The research contained in this issue confirms that human attention is biased by the presence of a directional cue. We discuss and compare the different studies. The pattern that emerges seems to suggest that the social relevance of the cue is necessary in some contexts but not in others, depending on the cognitive demand of the experimental task. One possibility is that the social mechanisms are involved in perspective taking when the task is cognitively demanding, while they may not play a role in automatic attention allocation.

scholarly journals Historical stages in the formation of the scientific knowledge system in a theoretical and methodological context

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (S2) ◽  
pp. 96-107
Author(s):  
Leonid Griffen ◽  
Nadiia Ryzheva ◽  
Dmytro Nefodov ◽  
Lyudmila Hryashchevskaya
Keyword(s):  
Modern Society ◽  
Specific Weight ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
The Social ◽  
Scientific Principles ◽  
History Of ◽  
Natural Result ◽  
Systemic Nature ◽  
Object Of Study

Current tendencies question the role of science in modern society, force returning to the processes of formation of the scientific paradigm. The latter was complex and nonlinear, and the formation of scientific principles of cognition was their natural result. Throughout human history, the knowledge about the objective world has been acquired and used in various, historically necessary forms – both in the methodology of cognition and in the method of systematisation, which was determined by the level of their accumulation. The accumulation of knowledge took place in different ways: in the process of direct practical activity, on the basis of supposedly “foreign” contemplation and as a result of conscious influence on an object of study (experiment) with their different “specific weight” at different historical stages. As for the systematisation, the need for which was determined by systemic nature of an object of knowledge and the social nature of knowledge, throughout the history of mankind its forms differed considerably, but, in the end, were reduced to three main ones. 

The Contemporary Reception of St Thomas on Law and Politics

2021 ◽  
pp. 611-625
Author(s):  
Michael Pakaluk
Keyword(s):  
Private Property ◽  
Political Liberalism ◽  
Political Society ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
Law And Politics ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Right

The reception of Thomistic political and legal philosophy is considered with respect to what is called ‘political liberalism’. The appeal to a hypothetical state of nature should be rejected, as it misconstrues the social nature of human beings. Aquinas’ account of the origin of political society starts from an interpretation of human nature. On this basis one can account for human rights, the importance of the right to religious liberty, the family as the basic cell of society, civil society as including subsidiary authorities, the importance of private property, and the nature and role of freedom. A key question for the continued flourishing of a free society is what practically enables persons to govern for the genuine good of others.

John Dewey’s Debt to William James

2018 ◽  
pp. 614-628
Author(s):  
James Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Social Practice ◽  
William James ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
The Social ◽  
Pragmatic Account ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter discusses the relationship of William James (1842–1910) and John Dewey (1859–1952). In particular, it attempts to tease out the ways in which Dewey’s thought drew upon ideas presented earlier by James. Among the Jamesian themes that appear in Dewey’s work are Dewey’s melioristic, pragmatic account of social practice; his emphasis upon the importance of habits in organized human life; his presentation of the role of philosophy as a means of improving daily life; his recognition of the social nature of the self; and his call for a rejection of religious traditions and institutions in favor of an emphasis upon religious experience. Clarifying Dewey’s relationship with James should in no way lessen the value of Dewey’s thought. Rather, it makes clearer the continuities that existed between these two pragmatic thinkers.

scholarly journals The Play’s the Thing: Experimentally Examining the Social and Cognitive Effects of School Field Trips to Live Theater Performances

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 246-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay P. Greene ◽  
Heidi H. Erickson ◽  
Angela R. Watson ◽  
Molly I. Beck
Keyword(s):  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Educational Practice ◽  
Field Trips ◽  
Cognitive Effects ◽  
Random Assignment ◽  
Social Perspective ◽  
Social Perspective Taking ◽  
Educational Benefits ◽  
The Social ◽  
Theater Performances

Field trips to see theater performances are a long-standing educational practice; however, there is little systematic evidence demonstrating educational benefits. This article describes the results of five random assignment experiments spanning 2 years where school groups were assigned by lottery to attend a live theater performance or, for some groups, watch a movie version of the same story. We find significant educational benefits from seeing live theater, including higher levels of tolerance, social perspective taking, and stronger command of the plot and vocabulary of those plays. Students randomly assigned to watch a movie did not experience these benefits. Our findings also suggest that theater field trips may cultivate the desire among students to frequent the theater in the future.

scholarly journals Ecology-centred accounting for biodiversity in the production of a blanket bog

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (7) ◽  
pp. 1537-1567 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Cuckston
Keyword(s):  
Biodiversity Conservation ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Productive Force ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
The Social ◽  
Blanket Bog ◽  
Scale Network ◽  
Human Actors

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the role of ecology-centred accounting for biodiversity in efforts to conserve biodiversity. Design/methodology/approach The paper examines a case study of biodiversity conservation efforts to restore a degraded blanket bog habitat. The analysis adopts a social nature perspective, which sees the social and the natural as inseparably intertwined in socio-ecological systems: complexes of relations between (human and non-human) actors, being perpetually produced by fluid interactions. Using a theoretical framework from the geography literature, consisting of four mutually constitutive dimensions of relations – territory, scale, network, and place (TSNP) – the analysis examines various forms of accounting for biodiversity that are centred on this blanket bog. Findings The analysis finds that various forms of ecology-centred accounting for biodiversity have rendered this blanket bog visible and comprehensible in multiple ways, so as to contribute towards making this biodiversity conservation thinkable and possible. Originality/value This paper brings theorising from geography, concerning the social nature perspective and the TSNP framework, into the study of accounting for biodiversity. This has enabled a novel analysis that reveals the productive force of ecology-centred accounting for biodiversity, and the role of such accounting in organising the world so as to produce socio-ecological systems that aid biodiversity conservation.

Children's Reasoning About the Refusal to Help: The Role of Need, Costs, and Social Perspective Taking

2013 ◽  
Vol 85 (3) ◽  
pp. 1134-1149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jellie Sierksma ◽  
Jochem Thijs ◽  
Maykel Verkuyten ◽  
Aafke Komter
Keyword(s):  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Social Perspective ◽  
Social Perspective Taking

scholarly journals The Social Perspective Taking Process: What Motivates Individuals to Take Another's Perspective?

2012 ◽  
Vol 114 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Hunter Gehlbach ◽  
Maureen E. Brinkworth ◽  
Ming-Te Wang
Keyword(s):  
High School Students ◽  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Motivating Factors ◽  
Social Perspective ◽  
School Students ◽  
Social Perspective Taking ◽  
The Social ◽  
Teachers And Students

Background/Context A growing literature describes multiple benefits of social perspective taking—many of which are particularly important for schools. Despite these potential benefits for administrators, counselors, teachers, and students, little is known about social perspective taking as a process. Purpose/Research Question If educational researchers are ultimately to design interventions to help improve the perspective-taking capacities of those in schools, they need to fully understand the underlying process. Particularly important is the need to understand: What initially motivates individuals to take the perspective of others? Participants To investigate this question, a sample of 18 adults from an array of different professions (who were nominated as adept perspective takers) and 13 high school students (who were nominated as struggling with social perspective taking) participated in the study. Research Design Participants completed a survey, a performance task, and in-depth interviews as part of this mixed-method exploratory study. The interviews served as the primary source of data and were coded for evidence of what triggered (or inhibited) participants’ motivation to engage in the social perspective-taking process. Findings The interview data established the existence of 13 specific factors that impacted participants’ motivation to engage in social perspective taking across a wide array of contexts. Seven factors generally enhanced individuals’ motivation to engage in social perspective taking; three factors were mixed; and three factors inhibited their motivation. Conclusions/Recommendations This research indicates that not only might individuals be motivated to engage in social perspective taking through multiple pathways, but these pathways might be combined and/or interact with one another. These motivating factors raise important issues for further research. In addition, at a practical level, they provide a foundation for developing structures to motivate individuals in schools to engage in perspective taking more often.

scholarly journals Different Top-Down Goals Modulate Early Stage of Attention Bias: Irrelevant Task Suppresses the N170 of Automatic Attention Allocation to Threat Faces

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haoran Dou ◽  
Limei Liang ◽  
Jie Ma ◽  
Jiachen Lu ◽  
Wenhai Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Early Stage ◽  
Attention Bias ◽  
Neural Mechanism ◽  
Attention Allocation ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Neutral Face ◽  
Fearful Face ◽  
Relevant Task ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Automatic Attention

Abstract Recent research has evidenced that stimulus-driven attention bias for threat can be modulated by top-down goals. However, it remains unclear how different top-down goals affect the early stage of attention processing and its early neural mechanism. We collected electroencephalographic data from 28 healthy volunteers during four inconsistent levels in a modified spatial cueing task according to cue validity and task relevance. Our data revealed that reaction time(RT) to the target in the irrelevant task were much slower than that in the relevant task. In the irrelevant task, we did not find the difference between the RTs to the fearful and neutral face. In the relevant task, we found RTs of fearful face were faster than that of neutral face in valid cue condition(weak inconsistent level), whereas the RTs of fearful face were slower than that of neutral face in invalid cue condition(medium inconsistent level). The ERPs results showed that in relevant task(weak, medium inconsistent levels), fearful face in cue position of the target evoked larger N170 amplitudes than neutral face did, whereas this effect was suppressed in irrelevant task(strong, very strong inconsistent levels). Besides, fearful face in cue position of the target also evoked larger vertex positive potential (VPP) amplitudes than the neutral face did in valid cue condition( weak inconsistent level). These results suggest that irrelevant task may inhibit the early attention allocation to the fearful face. Furthermore, the top-down processing modulates the early attention bias for threatening faces.

The Role of Emotional Mimicry in Intergroup Relations

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ursula Hess ◽  
Agneta Fischer
Keyword(s):  
Social Exclusion ◽  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Intergroup Relations ◽  
Social Bonds ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Group Boundaries ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Actual Interaction ◽  
Underlying Processes

What is the role of emotional mimicry in intergroup relations? There are different theoretical accounts of the function and underlying processes of emotional mimicry. A review of research on emotional mimicry suggests that, in general, emotional mimicry reinforces existing group boundaries, rather than breaking or dissolving them. Specifically, there is consistent evidence that people tend to mimic similar others more than dissimilar others. Given that ingroup members are by definition more similar to each other than to outgroup members, this implies that the former are more likely to be mimicked than the latter. In turn, mimicry improves social bonds with others, which then facilitates ingroup relations. The most primitive and implicit pathway for mimicry is via embodiment, and it can only take place when there is an actual interaction between group members. To the degree that such processes are presumed to be automatic, it is likely that they tend to reinforce social exclusion of outgroup members. By contrast, the most explicit pathway to mimicry is via perspective taking, in which one deliberately tries to take the other’s perspective. This process does not require the actual presence of members of other groups, but some form of empathy when judging or expecting to meet other group members. This process is more amenable to top-down influences. The research on mimicry also converges on the notion that when mimicry (or in fact other forms of behavior matching) is present, interactions can be expected to be more affiliative. Thus, with effort, mimicry can also be a tool for improving intergroup relations. As always, however, it requires more effort to cross group boundaries than to stay within them.

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