Description
In this task, children are presented with brief storybook vignettes involving Theory of Mind scenarios, and answer multiple-choice questions about the scenarios. These scenarios cover a wide range of Theory of Mind constructs and range in difficulty (e.g., reasoning about desires and beliefs, moral blameworthiness, mistaken referents, second order belief-desire reasoning). Children also answer emotion recognition questions as part of this task.
In addition, trials testing children’s Hostile Attribution Bias are embedded in the task. Scenarios are read aloud to the children about social situations that might happen to children (e.g. a child running a race while another child bounces a ball; the ball rolls toward the runner and the runner falls). The children then make a choice of possible interpretations of what happened.
Demo
Notes
- Short and open-access
- Span a wide age range
- Adaptable for use in other languages and cultures
Task Modifiers / Parameters
Audio Feedback | Determines whether audio cues are provided during the task to indicate correct or incorrect responses. |
Language | Specifies the language used for instructions and stimuli in the task. |
Skip Instructions | Whether the participant can skip instructions or needs to wait for the audio to finish. |
Sequential Practice | Determines if practice trials are presented in a fixed order rather than randomized. |
Sequential Stimulus | Specifies whether the main task stimuli are presented in a sequential order or randomized. |
Corpus | Refers to the set of stimuli or word list used in the task. (Currently not allowing outside corpuses) |
Button Layout | Defines the arrangement of response buttons on the screen. Options include default (4 x 1), grid (2 x 2), column (1 x 4), and diamond ◇. Default is default. |
Number of Trials | Specifies the total number of trials in the main task. |
Number of Practice Trials | Indicates the number of practice trials before the main task begins. |
Max Incorrect | Sets the maximum number of incorrect responses allowed before the task terminates. |
Key Helpers | Determines whether visual cues for keyboard shortcuts are displayed near response options. |
Age | Represents the age of the participant, which may affect task difficulty or stimulus selection. (Currently not in use) |
Max Time | Specifies the maximum duration of the task. If the participant does not finish within this time frame, the task is terminated. Default is 100, in minutes. |