The reliability and validity of mental state reasoning tasks for use in adolescents and adults

: A systematic review

Abstract

Mental state reasoning (MSR) is a skill that enables individuals to understand other people’s mental states and is a key aspect of social cognition. There has been increasing interest in this construct, as subtle MSR impairments have been associated with number of different clinical populations. However, little is known about the reliability or validity of the instruments used to assess this skill, which limits their utility in both research and clinical settings. This review set out to identify and evaluate the measurement properties of MSR tasks for use in populations beyond childhood. A systematic search was performed using four databases, for articles concerning the development or evaluation of the measurement properties of a MSR task. Both the methodological quality of the studies and the quality of the instrument measurement properties were systematically evaluated using validated criteria. The search strategy returned a total of 4523 articles, of which 18 studies, evaluating 16 different MSR instruments, were included in the review. The majority of studies were found to be of poor or fair methodological quality, which means that evidence regarding the majority of the instrument measurement properties is limited or indeterminate. Only three instruments, the Social Attribution Task (SAT), the Virtual Assessment of Mentalising Ability (VAMA) and the Reading the Mind in Films task (RMIF) demonstrated adequate results on more than one measurement property. This review therefore highlights the need for larger, well-designed studies to assess the measurement properties of currently available MSR tasks.

Date of Award	1 Oct 2016
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	King's College London
Supervisor	Yun Fai Lau (Supervisor) & Victoria Pile (Supervisor)