Egocentric error and the construct of egocentrism.

It was hypothesized that perception errors on a task requiring Ss to take different viewpoints could be explained in terms of response bias. Four hundred ten first graders, 421 fifth graders, and 260 undergradutaes' error patterns on 39 board/block adaptations of Piaget's three-mountain task were examined with respect to their front, opposite, and reversed choices of camera position. Front choices or egocentric errors were found, overall, to be independent of grade level. Results from this analysis were consistent with the response bias hypothesis: clearly, making an egocentric error is different from behaving in an egocentric manner.