The Graphesthesia Paradigm: Drawing Letters on the Body to Investigate the Embodied Nature of Perspective-Taking

Abstract

In this study, we investigated whether adopting a head-centered perspective on the body is an embodied process by means of the graphesthesia task. This task consists of interpreting ambiguous tactile symbols from different spatial perspectives. The results revealed that symbols were more easily recognized when the mental rotation of the head toward the stimulated surface corresponded to physically possible, as opposed to impossible, body movements. Performance also decreased with increasing the amount of body movements that would be necessary to physically rotate the head. These results are in line with an embodied view of spatial perspective-taking, and, more generally, they highlight the important role the body plays in perception.