Validation of a Novel Theory of Mind Measurement Tool: The Social Robot Video Task

Social communication difficulties in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have been associated with poor Theory of Mind (ToM)¬, an ability to attribute mental states to others. Interventions using humanoid robots could improve ToM that may generalize to human-human interactions. Traditionally, ToM has been measured using the Firth-Happe Animations (FHA) task which depicts interactions between two animated triangles. Recently, we developed a Social Robot Video (SRV) task which depicts interactions between two NAO robots. In this study, we administered both tasks to 8 children with ASD and 9 typically-developing children to examine the validity, reliability, and sensitivity of the SRV task. Results suggest that SRV has face validity, partial inter-rater reliability and could differentiate between the two groups. In sum, the SRV task could be used to assess effectiveness of ToM interventions using humanoid robots.

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