Measuring perspective taking with the "Virtual Class" videogame: A child development study

Perspective taking (PT) is a cognitive ability that enables people to imagine how an object or a scene appears from a perspective different from their current physical viewpoint. This is a fundamental ability, especially for navigating in the visual spatial environment or receiving information from a different perspective. Behavioral and imaging studies on PT have suggested that a significant change in PT ability occurs between middle/late childhood and the first stages of adolescence. Here, we assessed PT through a video game ("Virtual Class") using a sample of 83 typically developing children between the ages of 6 and 12 years. The results showed that PT improved over time, with a significant acceleration in improvements around the age of 8.5 years. We concluded that some children showed a significant improvement in PT starting during middle childhood, but this improvement can occur later in others, explaining discrepancies among earlier studies.