UNDERSTANDING THE EMBODIED NATURE OF SOCIAL COGNITION THROUGH VISUOSPATIAL PERSPECTIVE-TAKING

Abstract

Embodied cognition is anchored from experiences of the individual with her environment through sensorimotor capacitiesthat define her perception and action. In research on visuospatial perspective-taking (VSPT), which is a fundamental social ability to imagine the perspective from someone else’s spatial location, an experimental paradigm has been used. According to this paradigm, judgments must be made based on what the other person sees, allowing us to discover the specific mechanisms involved in the process. The most important mechanism is mental self-rotation. In this process, the subject mentally rotates her body until she reaches the “position” that allows her to see things as the other person sees them. This also requires the emulation of the other’s body posture, such that, when congruent, facilitates the adoption of the new perspective. Recent researches that identify these mechanisms were reviewed, revealing the usefulness of this experimental paradigm in the study of social cognition’s embodied character.