Test of Social Inference for Retarded Adolescents: Measuring Social-Cue Perception

Abstract

The Test of Social Inference is a 35-item individually administered, pictorial instrument designed to test the ability of retarded adolescents to interpret social cues appropriately. Very high interexaminer and high retest correlations were obtained though retest gains were common. Equivalent short forms have been developed. An examination of 1335 Ss in 9 geographical locations showed the test to be unbiased with respect to race and place of residence and uncorrelated with chronological age. Slight sex differences were found favoring males. Discrimination between public school-EMR Ss, institutionalized-EMR Ss, and non-retarded Ss on the basis of test scores was evident. The test correlated moderately with IQ but proved somewhat more highly related to a variety of social behavioral and psychological criteria than to IQ.

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