Perspective taking is typically defined as the ability to reason about others’ mental states (e.g. their beliefs, thoughts, desires, and intentions) and to understand the role of those mental states in everyday situations (I. A. Apperly, 2012). Traditional accounts of perspective taking typically analyze the ability based on three different domains: visual, affective or emotional, and cognitive perspective taking (Flavell, 2004). From a behavioral viewpoint, perspective taking skills are built upon the ability to recognize our own behavior in relation to the context. Relational Frame Theory (RFT) is a contemporary behavioral account of human language and cognition (Hayes et al., 2007). From an RFT viewpoint, perspective-taking skills involve deictic relations between individuals, spaces, and time. Instead of using the three dimensions analyzed in the other fields, RFT studies the development of complex perspective-taking skills through three types of deictic frames: interpersonal (I-YOU-OTHER), spatial (HERE-THERE), and temporal (NOW-THEN-LATER). The purpose of this dissertation was to develop a set of behavioral assessments to measure visual, emotional, and cognitive perspective-taking skills from an RFT viewpoint. This dissertation made methodological and empirical contributions to the field by proposing three behavioral computer-based protocols for evaluating the role of deictic frames on visual, emotional, and cognitive perspective taking tasks. Experiment 1 results revealed significant differences in response latency and correct response levels on interpersonal and spatial deictic frames at simple and reverse levels of complexity on a visual perspective-taking task. These findings suggested that transforming stimulus functions following a mutually entailed relationship between interpersonal and spatial frames is not equivalent to performing conditional discriminations involving both interpersonal and spatial stimuli. Experiment 2 results revealed significant differences in response latency and correct response levels on interpersonal frames with simple, reverse, and double reverse levels of complexity on an emotional perspective-taking task. The finding showed that as the complexity of the deictic relations in emotional perspective taking increased, so did the number of errors and latency to respond. Furthermore, the findings of the study indicate that the valence of emotions has an effect on the levels of deictic relational responding. On a cognitive perspective-taking task, the results of Experiment 3 revealed significant differences in response latency and correct response levels on interpersonal frames with simple and reverse levels of complexity. False beliefs and false desires increased the number of errors and latency to respond to interpersonal deictic frames, according to the findings. Overall, these protocols improved the ecological validity of RFT-based protocols of deictic frames, extended previous research on perspective taking, and opened up new research avenues.

Perspective-taking is a new topic in the field of behavior analysis and has become of extreme interest. Previous research has looked at perspective-taking using a protocol that has been previously developed. Research in this field has looked at whether the lack of perspective-taking (mindblindness) is the cause for social deficits in children diagnosed with Autism. The present paper modified the previously used perspective-taking protocol and included story book examples to determine if typically developing children could change perspective from themselves to fictional characters in various children's books using a Relational Frame Theory approach. Previous research suggests that derived relational responding is responsible for perspective-taking deficits. The results of the current study suggest that after extensive training; typically developing children were able to complete the perspective-taking protocol.

Within the present study, a multiple probe design across participants was used to analyze the effect of simple and single reversal deictic relational frame training on the rate correct responding to deictic relational frames in individuals with developmental disabilities. Results showed an increase in correct responding to simple and single reversal deictic relational frames after the implementation of the intervention. Furthermore, results showed that mastery level of responding was maintained in both simple and single reversal deictic frames after once training concluded. This research contributes to body of research concerning the training of deictic frames within individuals with developmental disabilities and research concerning the use of training deictic frames using pieces of the PEAK T Curriculum. The strengths, limitations, and methods to account for these issues within future research are discussed.

Perspective taking (PT) is the ability to imagine perspectives that differ from our own. Understanding what others believe (cognitive PT) and feel (affective PT) allows us to better navigate social situations, and understanding what others see (spatial PT) allows us to better navigate spatial environments. Deficits in spatial, cognitive, and affective PT are apparent in several DSM–5 categorized clinical populations including autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and major depressive disorder (MDD). Further, differences in the severity of PT impairments may be related to general mechanisms that support this ability rather than diagnostic categories. However, the general cognitive mechanisms that support PT and whether spatial, cognitive, and affective PT share behavioral co-variance and rely on common neural mechanisms is not yet understood. There are at least two theoretical accounts regarding the association of spatial, cognitive, and affective PT. Common mechanisms accounts propose that the three types of PT are associated because all rely on manipulation of frame-of-reference representations coordinated by dorsal and ventral attentional networks. Alternative proposals suggest that attentional mechanisms support spatial PT, but cognitive and affective PT are supported by a distinct module for mental state reasoning. In this dissertation, I begin by summarizing prior evidence from studies which examined the developmental emergence of PT abilities, behavioral co-variance of PT in neurotypical and clinically diagnosed adults, and neuroimaging studies of PT. Review of the literature indicates mixed findings with support for both common and distinct mechanisms accounts. Thus, the present work probes the association of spatial, cognitive, and affective PT across two experiments. In Experiment 1, a systematic activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis of spatial, cognitive, and affective PT and attention switching was conducted. Results indicated no single neural region that was commonly associated with all three types of PT, but several overlapping regions among cognitive and affective PT, and separately among spatial PT and attention switching. In Experiment 2, two behavioral tasks and one self-report measure each of spatial, cognitive, and affective PT, a behavioral measure of attention and general reasoning ability were administered to large sample of young adults. Performance on spatial PT tasks did not significantly covary with cognitive PT, attention, nor two of the three affective PT measures in neurotypical adults. In sum, neural and behavioral experiments provided substantial support for distinct mechanisms accounts and only limited support for common mechanisms accounts of PT in neurotypical adults. / Psychology

<p>Empati kan beskrivas som en förmåga att veta vad en person känner och tänker. Denna studies huvudsyfte var att översätta C. Daniel Bat-sons empatiskala till svenska. Syftet var även att testa om det fanns skillnader vid perspektivtagande samt skillnader i empati när den and-re är snäll jämfört med elak. Deltagarna var 111 gymnasiestudenter som fick inta ett perspektiv, objektivt eller med inlevelse, och läsa en historia. Resultatet visade att det inte fanns könsskillnad, men det fanns interaktion mellan historia och läsarperspektiv; skillnaden mellan perspektiven fanns när personen var snäll. Det fanns också skillnad i empati beroende vilken historia deltagarna hade läst. Det var lättare att känna empati för en snäll person än för en person som var elak.</p>

Empati kan beskrivas som en förmåga att veta vad en person känner och tänker. Denna studies huvudsyfte var att översätta C. Daniel Bat-sons empatiskala till svenska. Syftet var även att testa om det fanns skillnader vid perspektivtagande samt skillnader i empati när den and-re är snäll jämfört med elak. Deltagarna var 111 gymnasiestudenter som fick inta ett perspektiv, objektivt eller med inlevelse, och läsa en historia. Resultatet visade att det inte fanns könsskillnad, men det fanns interaktion mellan historia och läsarperspektiv; skillnaden mellan perspektiven fanns när personen var snäll. Det fanns också skillnad i empati beroende vilken historia deltagarna hade läst. Det var lättare att känna empati för en snäll person än för en person som var elak.

This study examines a new method for conceptualizing and measuring roletaking ability. Role-taking is defined in a manner that facilitates further theory building and testing. The task of designing and validating a measure of role-taking that departs from the self-evaluative measures currently used is undertaken and validated with an experimental design. A computer-based survey instrument is created consisting of video and written vignettes designed to test subjects’ ability to predict their study partner’s behavior. It is found that one type of vignette is more suitable for measuring role-taking accuracy than is the other. Females, regardless of experimental condition, record higher role-taking scores than do their male counterparts. Subjects’ self-reported role-taking accuracy is not correlated with their actual role-taking accuracy scores. Because this is the case, it leads to a re-thinking of the meaning of studies that use self-reported ability as the sole measure of role-taking ability. An additional finding is that participants seem to overestimate individual differences. Personality factors measured by the Big Five Inventory were not correlated with role-taking accuracy.

Over 50 years of research on prejudice has identified dozens of strategies that effectively reduce stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination. However, very few studies have examined if any of these strategies reduce bias when used directly by a stigmatized target. A few studies show that when stigmatized targets attempt to reduce bias by blatantly confronting people, or by presenting counter-stereotypic attributes, outgroup perceivers are threatened and motivated to retaliate against the target (Czopp & Montieth, 2003; Rudman & Glick, 2001). The Target Empowerment Model (or TEM) provides a framework for addressing these problems. The TEM proposes that targets can blatantly challenge bias in others if they first use strategies that diffuse perceptions of threat, like asking self-affirming questions (Stone et al., 2010). Using a social networking paradigm, three experiments tested the effects of asking self-affirming questions, confronting through perspective taking, and the combination of these strategies, on the biases expressed toward an Arab American target individual. Experiment 1 showed that when an Arab American target challenged perceivers by asking them to take their perspective, highly prejudiced participants showed increased dislike and distancing relative to a neutral question control condition. Experiment 2 showed that as predicted by the TEM, distancing in high prejudiced individuals was significantly reduced if the target first asked questions designed to affirm the perceiver's sense of fairness prior to insisting on perspective taking. Experiment 3 demonstrated that when the target affirmed prejudiced perceivers on values related to creativity prior to implementing a perspective taking strategy, perceivers showed less dislike and distancing compared to using either affirmation or perspective-taking strategies alone. In addition, reductions in the negative emotions directed at the target partially mediated the relationship between the use of different TEM strategies and distancing from the target. Taken together, these studies support the TEM predictions that stigmatized targets can effectively challenge prejudiced perceivers to reduce their biases if they first use a subtle bias reduction strategy that reduces perceptions of threat.

Perspective-taking is the ability to see the world from another person’s viewpoint and is often measured using “false belief” (FB) tasks. Although most typically developing children pass FB tasks between 4 and 5 years of age, approximately 80% of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) do not. Failure on FB tasks remains a persistent deficit among individuals with ASDs. However, relatively little evidence is available on teaching perspective-taking to children with ASDs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether teaching perspective-taking skill components would produce generalization to untrained task materials and to three perspective-taking tasks with children with autism. Perspective-taking was broken down into 6 behavioural components and each component was taught in a multiple-baseline design within each child. Procedures in the training program included prompt-fading, positive reinforcement, error correction, multiple exemplar training, forward chaining, and narrative response training. Participants consisted of 4 children with a diagnosis of an ASD. The results showed that the training program produced generalization to variations of the training materials for 14 of the 17 components. Generalization to the three perspective-taking tasks, however, was modest. This study contributes to the body of behavioural research on teaching perspective-taking skills to children with ASDs, and provides procedures for teaching component skills of perspective-taking.

Perspective-taking is the ability to see the world from another person’s viewpoint and is often measured using “false belief” (FB) tasks. Although most typically developing children pass FB tasks between 4 and 5 years of age, approximately 80% of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) do not. Failure on FB tasks remains a persistent deficit among individuals with ASDs. However, relatively little evidence is available on teaching perspective-taking to children with ASDs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether teaching perspective-taking skill components would produce generalization to untrained task materials and to three perspective-taking tasks with children with autism. Perspective-taking was broken down into 6 behavioural components and each component was taught in a multiple-baseline design within each child. Procedures in the training program included prompt-fading, positive reinforcement, error correction, multiple exemplar training, forward chaining, and narrative response training. Participants consisted of 4 children with a diagnosis of an ASD. The results showed that the training program produced generalization to variations of the training materials for 14 of the 17 components. Generalization to the three perspective-taking tasks, however, was modest. This study contributes to the body of behavioural research on teaching perspective-taking skills to children with ASDs, and provides procedures for teaching component skills of perspective-taking.