Coordination of Perspectives: The Importance of Stimulus Dimensionality

Summary

An evaluation of the importance of the dimensionality of the spatial stimuli in a coordination of perspectives task is presented. It was hypothesized that using three-dimensional comparison stimuli and two-dimensional choice stimuli might result in the tapping of different cognitive skills than when both sets of stimuli are two-dimensional. Children (N = 96) aged between 5 and 12 years as well as college students (n = 24) were tested with either two-dimensional or three-dimensional comparison stimuli and two-dimensional choice stimuli. The lowest error rates for all except the kindergarten groups were found in the two-dimensional condition. It was concluded that the three-dimensional condition may have created a cognitive overload that lessened the likelihood of making correct perspective-taking judgments.