Test-retest reliability for false-belief tasks

被引:49
作者
Mayes, LC
Klin, A
Tercyak, KP
Cicchetti, DV
Cohen, DJ
机构
[1] Yale Child Study Center, New Haven, CT
[2] Yale Child Study Center, New Haven, CT 06510
来源
JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY AND ALLIED DISCIPLINES | 1996年 / 37卷 / 03期
关键词
theory of mind; test-retest; false-belief;
D O I
10.1111/j.1469-7610.1996.tb01408.x
中图分类号
B844 [发展心理学(人类心理学)];
学科分类号
040202 ;
摘要
Despite notable variations in children's rate of success on theory of mind tasks and the presumed theoretical implications drawn from a child's success or failure on such tasks, there have been no studies of the test-retest reliability of children's performance on these tasks. Twenty-three children (mean age 49.6 months, SD 8.6) watched three videotaped stories illustrating a false-belief situation: the standard experimenter narrated false-belief task, a minor variant replacing the narration of the story with a dialogue among the characters, and a third version involving a humorous situation. The time elapsed between test and retest was 2-3 weeks and the order of presentation was counterbalanced. Results corroborated previous findings of a developmental trend in the understanding of false-belief questions but, despite a general improvement in children's comprehension of the stories, the test-retest reliability for the false belief questions was poor. Although changes recorded between test-retest sessions frequently occurred in the direction of children answering correctly questions they had previously failed, a subset of children incorrectly answered questions they had initially passed. These findings underscore the need for validation assessments of techniques for studying children's developing theories of mind.
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页码:313 / 319
页数:7
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