Contributions to the empirical validation and adaptation to Spanish of the mentalist task of strange stories

Abstract

The theory of the mind is a core capacity in the social development of people that allows us to infer what another is thinking or feeling and behaving in a manner appropriate to a social situation. One of the main criticisms made to instruments measuring Theory of Mind, is that their results are not reflected in the situations of everyday life. In 1994, Happe created a test trying to overcome the constraints. The aim of this paper was to generate empirical evidence contributing to the validation and Spanish adaptation of the mind theory test named Strange Stories of Happé, used to assess the capability to recognise non literal senses. Results revealed a good internal consistency of the test. The factorial analysis showed five factors that explained the 54% of the variance of data. Significant associations were found between non literal senses and social sensibility tests. Happé Strange stories are attempts to analyze aspects that come into play in everyday life and are an appropriate tool for evaluating the Theory of mind.

Keywords

• Theory of Mind task
• Communicative Intentions
• Happe`s Strange Stories