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Measuring advanced theory of mind: Do story-based tasks work?
Marta Białecka-Pikul1, Marta Szpak2, Julian Zubek2
1Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland; Institute of Psychology, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, Poland.
Journal of Adolescence
|October 15, 2021
Summary
Adolescent theory of mind (ToM) skills show limited age-related improvement and lack coherence across story-based tasks, indicating a need for better measurement tools.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Neuroscience
Background:
- Theory of Mind (ToM) development is well-studied in children, but less is known about its progression during adolescence.
- Existing measures of advanced ToM may not adequately capture the nuances of adolescent social reasoning.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the development of advanced Theory of Mind (ToM) skills in early and late adolescent Polish girls.
- To examine the relationships among common story-based tasks used to measure advanced ToM.
Main Methods:
- The study involved two groups of Polish adolescents: 13-year-olds (early) and 16-year-olds (late).
- Six common story-based tasks were administered to assess advanced ToM.
- Factor models were used to analyze task performance and underlying structures.
Main Results:
- An age-related increase in advanced ToM was observed in only half of the tasks.
- A significant lack of correlation was found among the different story-based advanced ToM tasks.
- This suggests limited coherence in how these tasks measure advanced ToM in adolescents.
Conclusions:
- Current advanced story-based ToM tasks may lack coherence and reliability for adolescent populations.
- There is a need for the development of more sensitive and valid measures of advanced ToM to capture complex social reasoning in adolescence.
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