Connecting the Dots: Reevaluating the Dot Perspective Task

The past decade has seen increasing evidence for implicit Theory of Mind (iToM)--a proposed capacity for effortlessly and involuntarily inferring the mental states of others. The Dot Perspective Task (DPT) is perhaps the most widespread and influential task within this literature. However, a number of researchers have recently argued that the key evidence for iToM produced by the DPT arises from a confounding effect of directional cueing. This task has remained controversial, even as researchers have started to use it as a diagnostic tool for the assessment of iToM deficits. To address this ongoing debate, we collated and reanalyzed participant-level data across 39 publications and 4063 individual subjects. Our analyses suggest that the key effect observed in the Dot Perspective Task can largely be explained by attentional confounds, validating prior concerns. In its current form, this task should not be used as a way of assessing iToM.