TEST-RETEST RELIABILITY FOR FALSE-BELIEF TASKS

Despite notable variations in children's rate of success on theory of mind tasks and the presumed theoretical implications drawn from a chil d's success or failure on such tasks, there have been no studies of th e test-retest reliability of children's performance on these tasks. Tw enty-three children (mean age 49.6 months, SD 8.6) watched three video taped stories illustrating a false-belief situation: the standard expe rimenter narrated false-belief task, a minor variant replacing the nar ration of the story with a dialogue among the characters, and a third version involving a humorous situation. The time elapsed between test and retest was 2-3 weeks and the order of presentation was counterbala nced. Results corroborated previous findings of a developmental trend in the understanding of false-belief questions but, despite a general improvement in children's comprehension of the stories, the test-retes t reliability for the false belief questions was poor. Although change s recorded between test-retest sessions frequently occurred in the dir ection of children answering correctly questions they had previously f ailed, a subset of children incorrectly answered questions they had in itially passed. These findings underscore the need for validation asse ssments of techniques for studying children's developing theories of m ind.