The Relationships Among Visuospatial Transformations, Empathy And Helping Intention

Visuospatial transformations refer to spatial motion of individuals who imagine the objects or oneself when individuals need to know the outside world from another aspect and under the condition that there is no realistic motion in outside object and itself. It may relevant to the empathy. The tendency to help others refers to the power system that the helper’s attitude and behavior towards the helping behavior. It has significant relevance to empathy. This study is to explore the relationship between visuospatial transformations and empathy and helping intention. Study1:Conducting a survey of81undergraduates by consulting Empathy Scale IRI and Helping Intention Questionnaire. By using various kinds of materials, devide visuospatial transformations into two kinds of tasks:Perspective-taking transformation and Letter rotation task. Keep records of the tests, such as their reaction time and accuracy rates. At last, data analysis.Study2:Conducting a survey of79undergraduates by consulting Empathy Scale IRI and Helping Intention Questionnaire.By using various kinds of materials, devide visuospatial transformations into two kinds of tasks:left-right judgment task and Similarities-differences judgment task. Keep records of the tests, such as their reaction time and accuracy rates.At last, data analysis. Results:Study1:in the relationship between the visuospatial tasks and empathy, the results showed that:(1) the IRI scores of female subjects and their performance in the letter rotation task were significantly negatively correlated (rs=-.316, p<.05);(2)In perspective-taking tasks, the perspective-taking of female participants and their reaction time of perspective-taking tasks were significantly negatively correlated (rs=-.415, p<.01);(3) In the letter rotation task, the PT of female participants were negatively correlated with its reaction time (rs=-.359, p<.05); It was positively correlated with accuracy (rs=.316, p<.05). In the relationship beteen visuospatial tasks and helping intention, we found out the results that:Female subjects’helping intention and perspective-taking reaction time were significantly negatively correlated (rs=-.382, p<.05); And their helping intention and the reaction time of letter rotation tasks were significantly negatively correlated (rs=-.418, p<.01). Study2:In the relationship between visuospatial transformations and empathy suggested that:(1) In the left-right judgment task, female participants’PT (PT) were significantly negatively correlated with the reaction time of the task(rs=-498, p<.01);(2) In the similarities-differences judgment task, female participants’PT scores were negatively correlated with their reaction time (rs=-.443, p<.01). In the relationship between the visuospatial tasks and helping intention, the results showed that:(1) Male subjects’helping intention and the accuracy of their similarities-differences judgment tasks had a significantly positive correlation (rs=, p<.05);(2) Female subjects’helping intention had a significantly negative correlation with the reaction time in left-right judgment tasks(rs=-.318, p<.05). Research findings:1. Female’s cognitive empathy (Perspective-taking) and their reaction time of visuospatial tasks were significantly negative correlation;2.Female subjects’helping intention and self-centered perspective-taking reaction time were significantly negatively correlated. The results show that there are correlations between empathy、helping intention and visuospatial tasks between in female subjects.These could herald that basic cognitive functions are associated with complex prosocial traits.