Département de psychologie, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Canada.
Appl Neuropsychol Adult. 2024 Sep-Oct;31(5):1096-1104. doi: 10.1080/23279095.2022.2109419. Epub 2022 Aug 8.
Happé's Strange Stories task was developed in 1994 to assess theory of mind, the ability to infer mental states in oneself and others. Since then, it has undergone revisions, translations, and adaptations. A modified version of the task, the Strange Stories-Revised (SS-R), previously showed satisfactory qualities in a study aiming at identifying psychometrically acceptable social cognitive measures.
The current study expands upon the psychometric evaluation study by examining the qualities of a short version of the SS-R in a sample of healthy adult subjects.
One hundred and eighteen healthy adults completed the task along with neurocognitive measures. Mean scores of the long and short versions were compared. Associations between ToM as measured by performance on this abbreviated version of the SS-R, and potential confounders were explored. Internal consistency, dimensionality of the short version, and performance comparisons across three stages of aging (18-34; 35-59; 60-85 years old) were investigated, and standard measurement error was calculated to improve precision and data interpretation.
Reliability coefficients were comparable in the short and long versions. Principal component analysis showed that a one-factor structure best fits the data. Significant differences were observed in ToM performance across the three age groups, indicating a decline with time that was also captured by the long version, starting during midlife and increasing in significance with age.
The short version of the SS-R is a promising measure that can be profitably used in time-limited settings to assess theory of mind.
Happé 的《奇异故事任务》于 1994 年开发，用于评估心理理论，即推断自己和他人心理状态的能力。从那时起，它经历了修订、翻译和改编。该任务的一个修改版本，即《奇异故事修订版》（SS-R），在一项旨在确定心理测量学上可接受的社会认知测量的研究中表现出了令人满意的质量。
本研究在健康成年受试者样本中检验 SS-R 短版本的心理测量学质量，扩展了心理测量学评估研究。
118 名健康成年人完成了任务以及神经认知测试。比较长版和短版的平均分数。探索了通过 SS-R 这个简短版本的表现来衡量心理理论与潜在混杂因素之间的关系。研究了简短版本的内部一致性、维度性，以及在三个年龄段（18-34 岁；35-59 岁；60-85 岁）之间的表现比较，并计算了标准测量误差，以提高精度和数据解释。
短版和长版的可靠性系数相当。主成分分析表明，单因素结构最适合数据。在三个年龄组之间观察到心理理论表现的显著差异，表明随着时间的推移而下降，长版也捕捉到了这一下降，从中年开始，随着年龄的增长，这种下降的意义越来越大。
SS-R 的短版是一种很有前途的测量方法，可以在时间有限的情况下，有效地用于评估心理理论。
