Age and the role of executive function in perspective-taking

It has been suggested that, as we age, it is more difficult to take another person’s perspective. In addition, an age-related decline in executive function has been reported. This study therefore investigated the age-related differences in perspective-taking and whether executive function may underlie reduced perspective-taking ability in older age. Younger, middle-aged and older adults completed a level-1 visual perspective-taking task (with eye-tracking), and a battery of executive function tasks to assess memory, planning, flexibility and inhibitory control. Older adults had poorer inhibitory control, flexibility, and working memory, but comparable planning ability, compared to younger adults. Reaction times in the visual perspective-taking task significantly increased from young, to middle-aged, to older adults. In addition, older adults were impaired when judging another’s perspective when their own perspective differed, indicating a higher degree of egocentric bias in older adults. Statistical models examined how visual perspective-taking ability is related to individual differences in executive function across adulthood. Overall, there is a specific impairment in taking another’s perspective when there is interference from our own perspective in late adulthood. This study therefore discusses how the decline in executive function may underlie difficulties in taking another’s perspective in later life.