Open AccessA psychometric investigation of the multiple-choice version of Animated Triangles Task to measure Theory of Mind in adolescence
Author(s) -
Naja Kirstine Andersen,
Martin Køster Rimvall,
Pia Jeppesen,
Mette Bentz,
Jens Richardt Møllegaard Jepsen,
Lars Clemmensen,
Rikke Kart Jacobsen,
Else Marie Olsen
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0264319
Subject(s) - autism spectrum disorder , population , psychology , task (project management) , autism , measure (data warehouse) , clinical psychology , sample (material) , developmental psychology , medicine , computer science , data mining , chemistry , environmental health , management , chromatography , economics
The Animated Triangles Task (AT) is commonly used to measure Theory of Mind (ToM). AT can be scored by clinicians based on participants’ verbal responses (AT-verbal) or using a multiple-choice paradigm (AT-MCQ). This study aimed to evaluate the validity of the less time-consuming AT-MCQ. To do this, we examined agreement and correlations between the AT-MCQ and the original AT-verbal scores in 1546 adolescents from a population-based sample. As a supplementary analysis of known-groups validity, we examined if AT-MCQ was as sensitive as AT-verbal in detecting ToM-limitations in 54 adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), using register-data. The agreement between AT-verbal and AT-MCQ varied markedly across test items. Scores on the two scoring methods were weakly correlated. Both scoring methods weakly detected differences between adolescents with and without ASD in this population-based sample. Most participants had appropriate responses on both AT-MCQ and AT-verbal, which yielded overall acceptable agreement. However, the feasibility of using either scoring methods to measure ToM-limitations in adolescents from the general population is questionable.