Background: Empathy dysfunction is one of the hallmarks of psychopathy, but it is also sometimes thought to characterise autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Individuals with either condition can appear uncaring towards others. This study set out to compare and contrast directly boys with psychopathic tendencies and boys with ASD on tasks assessing…

Anyone who has been involved with a cross-disciplinary team that combines scientists and information technology specialists knows just how tough it can be to move these efforts forward. Decades of experience point to the transformative potential of technology-enabled science efforts, and the success stories offer hope for future efforts. But for…

The aim of this study was to clarify the relationships between empathy variables, personal values and moral reasoning. The impact of empathic concern, perspective taking and personal values measured by the Portrait Value Questionnaire on moral schemas measured by the Defining Issues Test was investigated among 599 students from a university of…

The current paper proposes a Relational Frame Theory (RFT, Hayes, Barnes-Holmes, & Roche, 2001a) conceptualization of empathy and perspective taking that follows previous literature outlining a relationship between those phenomena and general functioning. Deictic framing, a relational operant investigated by RFT researchers, constitutes the…

In this third "Innovative Writing Instruction" column, the author invited a former high school teacher on the verge of preparing for doctoral candidacy exams, an instructor and doctoral student interested in writing research/practice, and a university supervisor for teacher education preservice students to share aspects of their writing selves,…

The ability to understand the goals and intentions behind other people's actions is central to many social interactions. Given the profound social difficulties seen in autism, we might expect goal understanding to be impaired in these individuals. Two influential theories, the "broken mirror" theory and the mentalising theory, can both predict…

Evidence from typical development and neuroimaging studies suggests that level 2 visual perspective taking--the knowledge that different people may see the same thing differently at the same time--is a mentalising task. Thus, we would expect children with autism, who fail typical mentalising tasks like false belief, to perform poorly on level 2…

In this article, the author explores the pedagogical value of cinema's capacity to offer a "decentered" mode of perspective for the audience. The author illustrates a film's ability to present a different perspective with reference to Sean Penn's "The Pledge" (2001) and Ivan Sen's "Beneath Clouds" (2002), which show how cinema allows viewers to…

While international literature asserts that research interest in the formal exclusion of students from school is increasing, studies that give voice to parents' views are few. This study explores the experiences of New Zealand families affected by exclusion. Eight individuals or couples, all of whom had had a teenager for whom they were…

Observers can recognize other people from their movements. What is interesting is that observers are best able to recognize their own movements. Enhanced visual sensitivity to self-generated movement may reflect the contribution of motor planning processes to the visual analysis of human action. An alternative view is that enhanced visual…

Two experiments investigated children's communicative perspective-taking ability. In Experiment 1, 4- to 5-year-old children were tested on two referential communication tasks, as well as on measures of inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. Results document children's emergent use of the perspective of their speaking…

The authors developed this experiential exercise to aid students in learning how others perceive them as well as how they perceive others and, ultimately, to begin to help them identify the origins of such perceptions. The exercise's goal is to explore how participants may make inaccurate perceptions of others and how they might pierce through…

Rankings of finance doctoral programs generally fall into two categories: a qualitative opinion survey or a quantitative analysis of research productivity. The consistency of these rankings suggests either the best programs have the most productive faculty, or that the university affiliations most often seen in publications are correlated with…

Medical Readers' Theater (MRT) is an innovative and simple way of helping medical students to reflect on difficult-to-discuss topics in geriatrics medical education, such as aging stereotypes, disability and loss of independence, sexuality, assisted living, relationships with adult children, and end-of-life issues. The authors describe a required…

A developmental model of children's understanding of nationality (Nationality Perspective-Taking Ability or NPTA) was proposed and evaluated in this study. The NPTA model expands extant definitions and provides a theoretical foundation for the developmental progression of national identity. Children (Mean age = 9.33 years) from Latin American and…