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This study examined for the first time the test-retest reliability of theory-of-mind tasks when administered to children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). A total of 16 questions within 9 tasks targeting a range of content and complexity were administered at 2 times to 17 children with ASD. In all, 13 questions demonstrated adequate test-retest reliability and high internal consistency. Items that did not achieve reliability violated a pragmatic convention, were ambiguous, or were associated with a response bias. No effect of verbal ability or diagnosis was found on consistency of performance. There was no effect of interval (i.e., short vs. long) on change in score although modest increases in performance occurred generally across administrations. Implications for research and practice are considered.
Keywords: autism; theory of mind; false belief; assessment; reliability; socialization
Although directions of influence are difficult to clarify, many researchers have concluded that theory-ofmind (ToM) deficits underlie the social, behavioral, and communicative impairments characteristic of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD; e.g., Baron-Cohen, Leslie, & Frith, 1985; Leslie, 1987), making ToM relevant and often central to the study of ASD. Across hundreds of studies, by far the most common ToM assessment strategy makes use of the now classic false belief task (Wellman, Cross, & Watson, 2001; Yirmiya, Erel, Shaked, & Solomonica-Levi, 1998) originally developed by Wimmer and Perner (1983). In this task children are told a story in which an object is moved from an old location to a new location without the knowledge of the main protagonist. For example, Anthony puts a book on the living room table and leaves the room. In his absence, Mariam enters and moves the book from the table to a drawer and then she leaves. Children are asked, "When Anthony returns, where will he look for the book?" Children who answer with the new (incorrect) location fail the question whereas children who answer with the old (correct) location pass the question by presumably demonstrating their knowledge that behaviors are guided by inner mental states, in this case a false belief.
Individuals with ASD generally perform poorly on false belief tasks compared with their age- and language-matched peers. In fact, decades of previous research have demon- strated autism-specific deficits in a range of tasks designed to assess various aspects...