Measuring mindreading in preschoolers: The perspective battery (PERBAT)

Abstract

Objective

The capacity to take another person’s visual perspective is pivotal for solving mindreading tests, such as Theory of Mind (ToM) tasks, but most of them heavily rely on domain-general abilities (e.g., language, executive functions). Here we present a novel battery of visual perspective-taking tests for child neuropsychological assessment, the Perspective Battery (PERBAT), which poses a limited load on domain-general abilities.

Methods

The battery includes four tests: i) Block Building; ii) Hide and Seek; iii) Deceptive Figures; iv) Double-Sided Shelf. We administered the PERBAT to 126 typically developing preschoolers (65 males; 3-6-year-old); the participants also performed classical tests of social cognition, language, and nonverbal abstract reasoning.

Results

The scores of all the PERBAT tests were significantly and positively related with age and scores of the classical social cognition tests, but not with scores of the language and nonverbal abstract reasoning tests.

Conclusions

The PERBAT could represent a useful neuropsychological tool providing a comprehensive assessment of visual perspective-taking skills in preschool children. Future investigation is needed to examine the validity of the PERBAT with neurotypical samples across countries, race, ethnicity, and language as well as with clinical populations. Longitudinal studies are also encouraged to examine whether early visual perspective-taking weaknesses are associated with later development of mindreading skills.

Keywords:

• Theory of mind
• social cognition
• mindreading
• perspective-taking
• false-belief

Acknowledgments

We thank Roberta Cecere, Anna Lauro and Gennaro Raimo for their help in preparing the materials.

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.