There are several research and clinical purposes for which direct assessment of an individual’s theory of mind competencies is desirable. For such instances, we have developed The Theory of Mind Task Battery.
The Theory of Mind Task Battery consists of 15 test questions within 9 tasks. Tasks are presented in short vignettes which are arranged in ascending difficulty. Items are variable with regard to content and complexity, from the ability to identify facial expressions to the ability to infer second-order false beliefs. The tasks are presented in a story-book format. Each page has color illustrations and accompanying text. Memory control questions are included which must be passed in order for credit to be given on the test questions. Characters in the vignettes represent a range of races and ethnicities.
The Theory of Mind Task Battery was designed to assess the theory of mind understanding of younger and older children who vary widely in their cognitive and linguistic profiles. The test is appropriate for nonverbal individuals as respondents can indicate responses either verbally or through pointing. The Theory of Mind Task Battery has been evaluated for test-retest reliability (Hutchins, Prelock, & Chace, 2008.) and internal consistency and it correlates strongly with other measures of theory of mind lending credibility to validity of the measure. For more information about The Theory of Mind Task Battery, please see the following YouTube Tutorial:
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Examples from the Theory of Mind Task Battery: