Spatial Perspective Taking is Robust in Later Life

Abstract

In developmental studies of spatial perspective taking, it is important to clearly distinguish imagining body movement from other related cognitive information processing, to capture the genuine features of this ability in aging. This study examined the characteristics of these abilities in the older adults by comparing differences among age groups. A video game task was devised to evaluate response times from various angles of rotation. Four hundred twenty-eight healthy individuals aged 6 to 79 years (eight age groups at 10-year intervals) participated. Average response times for each age group confirmed a curvilinear change that accelerated from childhood to early adulthood and decelerated in later life. However, older participants did not display inferior performance compared with the younger adults on the response times to rotate an imaginary self to a 180 degrees position. These results confirm previous findings that spatial perspective taking, particularly imagining body movement, remains robust in normal aging.

Developmental changes in the embodied self of spatial perspective taking

“…In contrast, cognitive processing (other than mental self‐rotation) may not influence the level of physical control so clearly, because growth or ageing of physical control does not have a direct connection with the actual body. For that reason, differences between age groups could appear in other cognitive information processing regardless of sensorimotor activation, as with Watanabe () and Watanabe and Takamatsu () having reported significant differences between younger adults and other age groups. The aim of this study was to verify these hypotheses by showing a difference between age groups in the effect of sensorimotor activation on mental self‐rotation or the other cognitive processing.…”

“…If mental self‐rotation involves rotating an embodied representation of the self, the normal immaturity of physical control in children or common decline in physical control in older adults could affect the operation of the embodied representational self. In addition, differences between age groups could easily appear in the performance of mental self‐rotation when participants undergo sensorimotor activation in an unstable physical condition, while Watanabe () and Watanabe and Takamatsu () reported no significant difference between older and younger adults when they performed an SPT task sitting deeply in a chair. In contrast, cognitive processing (other than mental self‐rotation) may not influence the level of physical control so clearly, because growth or ageing of physical control does not have a direct connection with the actual body.…”

“…The influence of extrinsic stimulation on postural stability, such as vibration stimulus (Pyykkö, Aalto, Seidel, & Starck, ), also diminishes in elderly people. Based on these findings, three age groups that differ in postural stability participated in the current study: 5‐ to 6‐year‐old children who can use level‐2 SPT (Flavell, ), college students, and adults over 60 years old who might still maintain a sufficient level of mental self‐rotation (Watanabe & Takamatsu, ).…”

“…Zacks and Michelon () suggested that the speed of mental self‐rotation depends upon the degree of angular disparity between one's own and a target's frame of reference. Watanabe and Takamatsu () designed an innovative task to elicit mental self‐rotation separately from other cognitive processing. They found that mental self‐rotation can be relatively maintained in normal ageing, while an apparent decline in elderly people's mental self‐rotation may arise from other cognitive processes.…”

“…They found that mental self‐rotation can be relatively maintained in normal ageing, while an apparent decline in elderly people's mental self‐rotation may arise from other cognitive processes. The current study refers to the procedure of Watanabe and Takamatsu () and adopts their task in order to compare the three conditions of sensorimotor strength in the three age groups.…”