Abstract
This research aimed at the evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Theory of Mind Assessment Scale (Th.o.m.a.s.). Th.o.m.a.s. is a semi-structured interview meant to evaluate a person's Theory of Mind (ToM). It is composed of several questions organized in four scales, each focusing on one of the areas of knowledge in which such faculty may manifest itself: Scale A (I-Me) investigates first-order first-person ToM; Scale B (Other-Self) investigates third-person ToM from an allocentric perspective; Scale C (I-Other) again investigates third-person ToM, but from an egocentric perspective; and Scale D (Other-Me) investigates second-order ToM. The psychometric proprieties of Th.o.m.a.s. were evaluated in a sample of 156 healthy persons: 80 preadolescent and adolescent (aged 11–17 years, 42 females) and 76 adults (aged from 20 to 67 years, 35 females). Th.o.m.a.s. scores show good inter-rater agreement and internal consistency; the scores increase with age. Evidence of criterion validity was found as Scale B scores were correlated with those of an independent instrument for the evaluation of ToM, the Strange Stories task. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed good fit of the four-factors theoretical model to the data, although the four factors were highly correlated. For each of the four scales, Rasch analyses showed that, with few exceptions, items fitted the Partial credit model and their functioning was invariant for gender and age. The results of this study, along with those of previous researches with clinical samples, show that Th.o.m.a.s. is a promising instrument to assess ToM in different populations.
Highlights
The aim of this study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Theory of Mind Assessment Scale (Th.o.m.a.s.; Bosco et al, 2009), a semi-structured interview developed for the assessment of Theory of Mind (ToM) in adolescents and adults
The findings showed that communicative-pragmatic abilities, at least for the level required to answer Th.o.m.a.s., do not affect performance
The 37 open-ended questions of which it is comprised are organized in four scales, called A (I–mental states (Me)), B (Other–Self), C (I–other persons (Other)), and D (Other– Me), each focusing on one of the knowledge domains in which ToM manifests itself
Summary
The aim of this study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Theory of Mind Assessment Scale (Th.o.m.a.s.; Bosco et al, 2009), a semi-structured interview developed for the assessment of Theory of Mind (ToM) in adolescents and adults (healthy and with clinical pathologies). The classic tests for the assessment of ToM, the false beliefs tasks, were created in the domain of developmental psychology (Wimmer and Perner, 1983; Baron-Cohen et al, 1985). They require the subject to recognize another person’s beliefs when they differ from those of the subject herself, under the assumption that this is the only certain proof of the availability of a theory of mind. Due to the poor test-retest reliability for the scores obtained at false-belief questions, initial attempts to validate false belief tasks did not give fully satisfactory results (Mayes et al, 1996)
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