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Cited by 132Child and Animal Learning DevelopmentPsychometric Methodologies and TestingSocial Robot Interaction and HRI

Measuring theory of mind across middle childhood: Reliability and validity of the Silent Films and Strange Stories tasks

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Devine, Rory T., Hughes, Claire·2016·Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
DOI 10.1016/j.jecp.2015.07.011
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Abstract

Recent years have seen a growth of research on the development of children's ability to reason about others' mental states (or "theory of mind") beyond the narrow confines of the preschool period. The overall aim of this study was to investigate the psychometric properties of a task battery composed of items from Happé's Strange Stories task and Devine and Hughes' Silent Film task. A sample of 460 ethnically and socially diverse children (211 boys) between 7 and 13years of age completed the task battery at two time points separated by 1month. The Strange Stories and Silent Film tasks were strongly correlated even when verbal ability and narrative comprehension were taken into account, and all items loaded onto a single theory-of-mind latent factor. The theory-of-mind latent factor provided reliable estimates of performance across a wide range of theory-of-mind ability and showed no evidence of differential item functioning across gender, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status. The theory-of-mind latent factor also exhibited strong 1-month test-retest reliability, and this stability did not vary as a function of child characteristics. Taken together, these findings provide evidence for the validity and reliability of the Strange Stories and Silent Film task battery as a measure of individual differences in theory of mind suitable for use across middle childhood. We consider the methodological and conceptual implications of these findings for research on theory of mind beyond the p…

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  • The Silent Film and Triangles tasks are reliable and valid indicators of theory of mind for this age range.

    “the tasks are reliable measures of ToM as indicated by strong test -retest reliability (e.g., Devine & Hughes, 2016) and are valid indictors of ToM as indicated by convergent validity with other advanced measures such as the Strange Stories task (e.g., Devine et al., 2024)”

    From Longitudinal development of theory of mind in adolescence and its associations with fiction reading experience. (2025) · cites this paper as Devine & Hughes, 2016

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Authors
Devine, R. T., & Hughes, C.
Affiliations
University of Cambridge (GB)
Corresponding author
Devine, Rory T.
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2016-09
Volume
149
Pages
23-40
ISSN
0022-0965 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.jecp.2015.07.011
OpenAlex
W1127089603
Cited by
132
References
6
Citations by year
2026: 8 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 33 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 1
FWCI
21.78
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Journal of Experimental Child Psychology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Apollo (University of Cambridge) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • University of Birmingham Research Portal (University of Birmingham) (submittedVersion)
Funders
Isaac Newton Trust
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Robot Interaction and HRI
Keywords
theory of mind, middle childhood, psychometric properties, test-retest reliability, latent factor analysis, differential item functioning, individual differences, social cognition development, narrative comprehension
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Child, Female, Humans, Language Tests, Male, Motion Pictures, Psychological Tests, Psychometrics, Thinking, Verbal Behavior, Vocabulary, Reproducibility of Results, Comprehension, Narration, Theory of Mind

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