A new test of advanced theory of mind: The "Strange Stories Film Task" captures social processing differences in adults with autism spectrum disorders.
The Strange Stories Film Task is a fast, sensitive video tool that spots advanced theory-of-mind gaps in adults with autism.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Murray et al. (2017) built short movie clips from the classic Strange Stories. Each clip shows a social twist that needs mind-reading to understand.
They asked adults with autism and matched controls to watch the clips and explain the twist. The team then scored how well each person caught the hidden mental state.
What they found
The filmed Strange Stories cleanly split the two groups. Adults with autism scored lower on the advanced theory-of-mind questions than the control adults.
The new test also lined up well with older, paper-based mind-reading tools, so it measures the same skill in a fresh way.
How this fits with other research
Dziobek et al. (2006) did something close with the MASC film. They were first to show that a 15-minute movie can expose social-cognition gaps in adults with Asperger syndrome. Kim’s team follows that lead but swaps in the Strange Stories plots.
Jarvers et al. (2023) ran the original text version of Strange Stories with autistic adults and saw the same drop in scores. The 2017 film version gives the same split, so the story content, not the format, drives the difference.
Hawley et al. (2004) found that static photo tests missed subtle mind-reading problems, but a naturalistic video caught them. Kim’s filmed task echoes that lesson: moving social scenes reveal deficits that paper tasks can hide.
Why it matters
If you assess adults with ASD, you now have a quick, engaging film task that takes minutes yet gives clear group separation. Use it during intake to flag advanced theory-of-mind issues that might block work or college success. The clips also open the door to teaching moments: pause, ask “What is she really thinking?” and give instant feedback.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Try one 30-second clip: show it, ask the client why the joke worked, and note if they cite the speaker’s hidden intention.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Real-life social processing abilities of adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) can be hard to capture in lab-based experimental tasks. A novel measure of social cognition, the "Strange Stories Film task' (SSFt), was designed to overcome limitations of available measures in the field. Brief films were made based on the scenarios from the Strange Stories task (Happé) and designed to capture the subtle social-cognitive difficulties observed in ASD adults. Twenty neurotypical adults were recruited to pilot the new measure. A final test set was produced and administered to a group of 20 adults with ASD and 20 matched controls, alongside established social cognition tasks and questionnaire measures of empathy, alexithymia and ASD traits. The SSFt was more effective than existing measures at differentiating the ASD group from the control group. In the ASD group, the SSFt was associated with the Strange Stories task. The SSFt is a potentially useful tool to identify social cognitive dis/abilities in ASD, with preliminary evidence of adequate convergent validity. Future research directions are discussed. Autism Res 2017. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Autism Res 2017, 10: 1120-1132. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2017 · doi:10.1002/aur.1744