| Theory of mind(To M)refers to an individual’s ability to understand mental states(beliefs,intentions,emotions,etc.)and to use them to explain and predict the behavior of others.This is closely related to social cognition and social behavior such as pro-social behavior,mutual understanding and interpersonal interaction,which are advanced cognitive processes developed by humans in the process of coping with a complex and changing society.However,whether individuals can accurately monitor their own To M processing and whether To M abilities are separated from self-monitoring abilities have received less attention in previous studies.The individual’s accurate self-monitoring of To M processing contributes to his or her own harmonious interaction with others in social life.In the metacognitive domain,often using confidence judgments as indicators of self-monitoring.Therefore,this study intends to use the classic research index of metacognitive monitoring—confidence judgment,to explore the self-monitoring of individual To M processing.The “Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test(RMET)”,as a mature test of To M,has not only been widely used in many countries,but also been revised and applied to multiple age groups.However,no study in China has already revised its strict Chinese version,which affects the use of the test in relevant studies in China.This research first refers to the practice of foreign revisions,taking the group of Chinese college students as a sample.Revised the Chinese version of RMET(RMET-C),and provide the psychometric characteristics of the test in the Chinese version.Secondly,use the RMET-C and the classic research paradigm of self-monitoring.By comparing the differences between RMET-C scores and their confidence judgments,the self-monitoring situation of the processing of individual theory of mind is investigated.The research mainly includes two parts.In Study 1,revision and trial of the Chinese version of the classic test “RMET” for measuring To M.The results showed that:(1)14 items were deleted in the revised RMET-C,and 22 items remained,showing good reliability and validity.(2)There was a significant difference in To M between males and females among Chinese college students,and females perform better than males.There was a significant difference in To M between only child or not,and the ability of To M of non-only children is higher than that of only children.In Study 2,an experimental design to explore the accuracy of self-monitoring of individual To M processing.The results showed that:(1)There were significant differences between subjects in the high To M grouping on the two tasks,and confidence judgment ratings were lower for the high grouping.(2)On the second half of the test,there were significant differences in the subjects’ RMET-C scores and confidence judgment ratings.(3)There was a negative correlation between To M and discriminative response time.(4)There was a positive correlation between To M and confidence judgment rating.(5)There was a negative correlation between confidence judgment rating and confidence judgment reaction time.(6)There was a negative correlation between the confidence judgment rating and the mean of discriminative response time.According to the results,the following conclusions are drawn:Firstly,the RMET-C with its better psychometric properties,can be used as a valid test instrument to assess the To M of Chinese college students.Secondly,using the RMET-C as the To M processing task,individuals were found to be basically accurate in self-monitoring in To M processing.However,it was also found that individuals with high To M abilities had slightly biased self-monitoring of their own To M processing.They cannot accurately monitor their higher To M ability.Moreover,the accuracy of self-monitoring of individual To M decreased with the increase of tasks,and there was underconfidence-with-practice effect. |
