Heise Megan J, Bowman Lindsay C
Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, Davis, California, USA.
Child Dev. 2025 Sep-Oct;96(5):1787-1806. doi: 10.1111/cdev.14263. Epub 2025 Jul 12.
This study describes a novel measure of children's Theory of Mind (ToM) development-called the Comprehensive Assessment of ToM (CAT)-that addresses limitations in existing ToM measures. This behavioral measure includes three-six items each about diverse desires, diverse beliefs, knowledge access, knowledge expertise, false belief, and visual perspective taking, as well as nonsocial representational reasoning (i.e., false-sign). All items include a prediction, explanation, and general comprehension question. The measure is psychometrically valid and robust in 3- to 8-year-old children (n = 206; 104 boys; 101 girls; 1 gender fluid; 37.7% White non-Hispanic). Children's performance replicates prior findings with the commonly used Wellman and Liu (2004) ToM scale, but also reveals a novel and nuanced pattern of mental-state scaling over early to middle childhood.
本研究描述了一种衡量儿童心理理论（ToM）发展的新方法——全面心理理论评估（CAT），该方法克服了现有ToM测量方法的局限性。这种行为测量方法包括三到六个项目，分别涉及不同的欲望、不同的信念、知识获取、知识专长、错误信念、视觉观点采择，以及非社会性表征推理（即错误信号）。所有项目都包括一个预测、解释和一般理解问题。该测量方法在3至8岁儿童（n = 206；104名男孩；101名女孩；1名性别流动者；37.7%为非西班牙裔白人）中具有心理测量学效度且稳定可靠。儿童的表现重复了之前使用常用的韦尔曼和刘（2004）ToM量表得出的结果，但也揭示了从幼儿期到童年中期心理状态量表的一种新颖且细微的模式。
