Perspective-taking, the ability to understand and be aware of information states in oneself and others has recently become an important topic in examining complex behavior and cognition. Previous research has developed a behavioral protocol for assessing perspective-taking skills and has indicated that there are perspective-taking deficits in populations diagnosed with autism. This research has also indicated that the lack of perspective-taking could be the basis for social deficits observed in these populations. Populations that display similar social deficits (i.e. learning disabilities) have not been examined, nor has prior research examined perspective-taking in adolescent populations. The present paper reports the findings of examining the perspective-taking skills in adolescents diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome or a specific learning disability. Participants were tested using a perspective-taking protocol created using therapy cards designed for teaching social skills to adolescents with autism. The protocol included a number of questions testing both deictic frames (I-You, Here-There, Now-Then) and frames of relation (simple, reversed, double reversed). Results indicate that there are similarities in the perspective-taking abilities of adolescents diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, and those diagnosed with learning disabilities.

Theoretical and empirical evidence indicate a possibility that reading certain types of historical texts could improve different constructs of empathy that include theory of mind (ToM), empathic concern (EC), and historical perspective-taking (HPT).The objective of this study was to compare the effect of reading a collection of primary documents in comparison to a historical narrative on ToM, HPT, and EC for adolescents in an eighth-grade history class. Students were randomly assigned to read either a historical narrative or a collection of adapted historical documents with approximately the same length, and reading level. This researcher controlled for student comprehension scores, ToM scores, estimated amount of reading frequency, gender, and age. Post reading, students were assessed on ToM, EC, and HPT using age-appropriate and valid measures. The results demonstrated no statistical difference for individuals assigned to read either text as measured by ToM, EC, and HPT. Individuals with higher comprehension abilities in the historical document group were more likely to read for a longer period of time than individuals with high comprehension abilities in the narrative group. Empathic emotions for the narrative group were significantly correlated with higher HPT. The researcher argues that better ToM assessments need to be developed for adolescents and the relationship of reading historical texts and empathy for adolescents should be a topic of future research.

Research supports varied patterns of emotion-modulated startle (EMS) reactivity among depressed individuals. The purpose of this study was to examine whether these varied patterns can be explained by depression, empathic tendencies, and emotional stimuli. The EMS paradigm is a well-validated measure of emotion-modulated reactivity in which the magnitude of startle reflexes in reaction to acoustic stimuli are recorded while participants view pleasant, neutral, and negative images (Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 1990). Young adults (N = 120; Mage = 19.54, SD = 1.41; 75% female) completed self-report rating scales of depression symptoms and cognitive and affective empathic tendencies and the EMS paradigm. Individuals with low depression, regardless of their cognitive (hp2 = .44 and .47) and affective empathic tendencies (hp2 = .49 and .36), and individuals with high depression and high cognitive and affective empathic tendencies (hp2 = .23, .46, respectively) exhibited the typical linear EMS reactivity pattern of increasing startle reflex magnitude from pleasant to neutral to unpleasant images. In contrast, individuals with high depression along with low cognitive and affective empathic tendencies exhibited blunted EMS reactivity patterns (hp2 = .000, .04, respectively). These findings indicate blunted EMS reactivity patterns only in depressed individuals who have low cognitive and affective empathic tendencies and are likely disengaged from emotional stimuli, thus suggesting variability among depressed individuals in motivational states that prime or inhibit the startle reflex.

A study on the relationship of mindfulness to empathy was conducted with undergraduate students at a large southwestern university. Previous studies suggest that mindfulness may be related to empathy, but are inconclusive due to measurement and methodological limitations. A mindfulness construct that includes axioms related to intention, attention, and attitude is suggested for researching empathy, along with statistical models that include mediation. A multifactored measure of mindfulness was hypothesized to predict perspective taking and empathic concern empathy components, which in turn would mediate the relationship of mindfulness facets to individual and interpersonal outcomes. Study results suggest a relationship of mindfulness to perspective taking, but not to empathic concern. Results from the mediation procedures were not supportive of the theorized role of empathy in relation to mindfulness on individual and interpersonal outcomes. Implications and limitations to the study design and theory are discussed. / text

Theory of mind, the ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others, has traditionally been investigated in humans and nonhuman primates. However, non-primate species, such as domestic dogs, may also be potential candidates for such a faculty. Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) evolved from a social-living, wolf-like ancestor, and were the first species to be domesticated, with likely selection for sensitivity to human cues and human-like cognitive abilities. Dogs typically spend their lives in the rich social environment of human families, and thus dogs are naturally enculturated. The combination of these factors make dogs an excellent candidate for having a functional theory of mind. Yet perhaps surprisingly, prior research on theory of mind in dogs is limited, with inconclusive and contradictory results. The research described in this thesis is a systematic investigation of dogs' potential to demonstrate a functional theory of mind in their interactions with humans. Four experiments are presented, based on the Knower-Guesser paradigm (Povinelli et al., 1990), in which a knowledgeable and an ignorant human informant indicated the location of hidden food to the dog. In Experiment 1, one informant was absent (Guesser) and one present (Knower) during the food-hiding, and the dogs chose the Knower. However, when both informants were present, the dogs chose the informant that did the baiting, but this preference was less than when the Guesser was absent. In Experiments 2 and 3, a third experimenter hid the food while the informants covered their cheeks (Knower) or eyes (Guesser) with their hands, or were attentive (Knower) or inattentive (Guesser) to the food-hiding. In both cases, the dogs showed a significant preference for the Knower. In Experiment 4, the dogs showed no preference between the informants when they had equal perceptual access to the baiting, and were unsuccessful at selecting any container when the informants did not provide communicative cues. Overall, the present research provides the most definitive evidence yet that domestic dogs may be able to attribute differential states of knowledge to human observers, and thus may possess a functional theory of mind.

This study used qualitative research methods to analyze the ways in which difficult knowledge is represented in Ontario’s 2013 and revised 2018 history curriculum (Grades 7, 8, 10). Difficult knowledge promotes serious discussions about weighty topics – often entrenched in collective memory – and invites readers to reflect on the different values, beliefs, and perspectives around such topics. In this study, difficult histories refer to contested depictions of past violence and oppression as they appear in historical narratives and curricular frameworks (Epstein and Peck, 2017). Examining the curriculum using the lens of difficult knowledge allowed me to consider how educators might foster reconciliation through engagement with chapters in Canadian history. The content analysis considered the difficult knowledge topics in history curricula and the approaches proposed to encourage perspective-taking. The study used a critical sociocultural approach to explore how Ontario’s official curriculum represents difficult knowledge using multiple perspectives in general, and Indigenous perspectives, specifically. In an effort to gain a better understanding of the curricular resources currently available, this study contributes to knowledge growth by identifying entry points in the curriculum that serve to help teachers introduce difficult knowledge using disciplinary thinking and Indigenous epistemic themes. The main goal with this research is to provide recommendations to guide policy, research, and practice in the integration of Indigenous perspectives and knowledges in ways that are meaningful to learners.

Research on perspective taking generally points to positive outcomes, but a small and growing body of literature highlights conditions where perspective taking can instead lead to undesirable outcomes. The goal of this dissertation study is to test a model of how taking the perspective of someone who struggles to control food consumption may negatively influence prejudice and discrimination toward heavy people. My model predicts that taking the perspective of someone who is effortfully trying not to eat, which requires the use of self-regulatory processes, vicariously depletes the perspective-taker’s own self-regulatory capacity. Whether that depletion leads to greater expressions of prejudice and discrimination toward heavy people depends on whether the person has high or low levels of implicit prejudice toward heavy people, and how internally or externally motivated the person is to control weight prejudice. Study participants were randomly assigned to read one of three first-person diary entries about a person in a social context where food was present. The degree to which the food described in the diary entry was appetizing, and whether the person was hungry and tempted to eat the food was manipulated. Half of the participants were instructed before reading the diary entry to take the perspective of the person in the story, while the other half were instructed to simply read the diary entry. Self-regulatory capacity was measured and tested as a mediator between perspective taking and both prejudice and discrimination. Effort and individual differences in implicit attitudes about weight and motivation to control weight prejudice were measured and tested as moderators in the model. Results did not support the primary study model hypotheses.

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Giving students opportunities to ground mathematical concepts in physical activity has potential to develop conceptual understanding. This study examines the role direct embodiment, an instructional strategy in which students act out concepts, plays in learning mathematics. I compared two conditions of high school geometry students learning about similarity. The embodied condition participated in eight direct embodiment activities in which the students represented mathematical concepts and explored them through their movements. The observer condition participated in eight similar activities that did not involve physical activity. The students in the embodied condition had greater learning gains on a pre- and post-test, and those gains were driven by larger increases in conceptual understanding. There were also differences in the way the two conditions remembered the activities. On a survey given at the end of the unit, students in the embodied condition were more likely to write about the activities from a first person point-of-view, indicating that they had likely adopted a first person viewpoint during the activities. The embodied condition was also more likely to switch points-of-view when writing about the activities, indicating that they had likely translated among multiple viewpoints during the activities. This suggests translating between viewpoints is one mechanism for learning through direct embodiment. Students in the embodied condition also wrote more about the activities, which suggests that they remembered more about their experiences. Their survey responses included more mathematical and non-mathematical details than the responses from students in the observer condition. / text

The present mixed-methods study examined adolescents’ social perspective taking in contexts of social justice as demonstrated by their awareness and interpretations of hypothetical peer interactions depicting racism and sexism. Fifty adolescents in Grades 9 and 12 participated in a semi-structured interview in which they were presented with two scenarios, involving adolescents in conflicts portraying racism and sexism. They were asked a series of questions designed to elicit their awareness and understanding of social group differences. Qualitative analyses revealed three categories of adolescents’ responses, reflecting distinct interpretations of social group differences. On average, adolescents assumed a perspective that was naïve to the disparities existing between vulnerable and less vulnerable social groups. Furthermore, it was shown that older adolescents had significantly more sophisticated social justice understandings than younger adolescents. These findings highlight the need to educate adolescents about issues of social justice and facilitate an appreciation of social group differences.