Shryane Nick M, Corcoran Rhiannon, Rowse Georgina, Moore Rosanne, Cummins Sinead, Blackwood Nigel, Howard Robert, Bentall Richard P
Institute for Social Change, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
Cogn Neuropsychiatry. 2008 Jan;13(1):8-32. doi: 10.1080/13546800701748805.
This study used Item Response Theory (IRT) to model the psychometric properties of a Theory of Mind (ToM) stories task. The study also aimed to determine whether the ability to understand states of false belief in others and the ability to understand another's intention to deceive are separable skills, and to establish which is more sensitive to the presence of paranoia.
A large and diverse clinical and nonclinical sample differing in levels of depression and paranoid ideation performed a ToM stories task measuring false belief and deception at first and second order.
A three-factor IRT model was found to best fit the data, consisting of first- and second-order deception factors and a single false-belief factor. The first-order deception and false-belief factors had good measurement properties at low trait levels, appropriate for samples with reduced ToM ability. First-order deception and false beliefs were both sensitive to paranoid ideation with IQ predicting performance on false belief items.
Separable abilities were found to underlie performance on verbal ToM tasks. However, paranoia was associated with impaired performance on both false belief and deception understanding with clear impairment at the simplest level of mental state attribution.
本研究使用项目反应理论（IRT）对心理理论（ToM）故事任务的心理测量特性进行建模。该研究还旨在确定理解他人错误信念状态的能力和理解他人欺骗意图的能力是否为可分离的技能，并确定哪一种对偏执的存在更敏感。
一个由临床和非临床个体组成的多样化大样本，在抑郁和偏执观念水平上存在差异，他们完成了一项ToM故事任务，该任务测量一阶和二阶的错误信念和欺骗。
发现一个三因素IRT模型最适合数据，该模型由一阶和二阶欺骗因素以及一个单一的错误信念因素组成。一阶欺骗和错误信念因素在低特质水平上具有良好的测量特性，适用于心理理论能力降低的样本。一阶欺骗和错误信念都对偏执观念敏感，智商可预测错误信念项目的表现。
发现可分离的能力是言语ToM任务表现的基础。然而，偏执与在错误信念和欺骗理解方面的表现受损有关，在最简单的心理状态归因水平上有明显损害。
