M1 or M2
Internship
Information
Laboratory:

Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique

Address

ISIR, 4 place Jussieu, 75005 Paris

Team
Perception, Interaction et Robotique Sociales.
Theme
Spatial and social cognition
Adviser
Length of internship
6-12 months (flexible)
Language
French or English
Being able to place yourself “in someone else's shoes” requires two main perspective-taking abilities. First, perceiving another’s spatial point of view (spatial perspective-taking) and second, representing their thoughts and intentions (hereafter social perspective-taking). Recent findings point towards critical links between the processing of higher-order mental information and lower-level spatial abilities using behavioural methods in neurotypicals, in patients, and using neuro-imaging. However, although previous studies point toward a link, research remains scarce and requires a systematic investigation. In particular, whether social perspective-taking is linked not only to the spatial perspective people preferentially adopt but also to their ability to flexibly change perspective remains unknown. In this internship, we will investigate the links between spatial and social perspective taking using psychophysics. This will be done in the general population in case of a short internship or in patients (spatial cognition disorders following brain damages, social cognition disorders and in particular ASD) in case of a longer internship (> 5 months).