Shifting Perspectives: Point of view in visual images affects abstract and concrete thinking, PhD

Shifting Perspectives: Point of view in visual images affects abstract and concrete thinking
By Shaeffer, Eric M.
Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Psychology, 2009.
Pages: 109p.
0.88 MB PDF file

Abstract:
Visual images can depict the same action or event from multiple points of view. Images from a first-person perspective depict events as seen through the actors’ own eyes, whereas images from a third-person perspective depict events through the eyes of an observer who is watching an action take place. This dissertation examines how varying this aspect of images affects level of abstraction, which then leads to different interpretations of the same event. Four experiments tested whether visual perspective is related to thinking abstractly or concretely about actions. Across these studies, actions depicted in third-person images were described abstractly more often than were first-person images, and actions described abstractly were more often paired with third-person depictions of those actions.

Two additional experiments tested whether point of view in visual images causes one to adopt either an abstract or a concrete mindset. In these studies, people who had been briefly exposed to third-person images were more likely to describe unrelated actions abstractly and to think that abstract descriptions fit Aesop’s fables than people exposed to first-person images. These findings suggest that third-person images are more strongly associated with adopting an abstract processing style. Together, these studies attest to the significance of visual perspective in images and highlight the broader role of perspective in human cognition.

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