Faux Pas Test (FPT)
Background
The Faux Pas Test (FPT) is a psychological assessment used to measure Theory of Mind (ToM) abilities — the understanding that others might have different beliefs, desires, and intentions than oneself. The FPT specifically evaluates a person's ability to detect and explain social "faux pas," which occur when someone says something awkward or offensive without realizing it. Simon Baron-Cohen and colleagues in designed the first first iteration of the test to study the role of the frontal lobe in 1998. They further developed the test in 1999 to be used for autism research with children.
The Millisecond FPT is largely based on the publicly available material by Charlotte R. Pennington and colleagues from 2023 who used the FPT to study the frequently observed difficulties patients suffering from multiple sclerosis (MS) show in understanding the thoughts and feelings of others. Their research supported that the causes of these social difficulties in MS patients are driven, at least in part, by poorer working memory updating abilities to keep track of rapidly changing information.
Participants taking the FPT read several scenarios in which people interact, e.g. at a party, and are asked to evaluate if one of the people in the situation said or did something awkward by selecting a 'Yes' or a 'No' button. All 'Yes' responses are followed up with several open-ended questions to get a better understanding of the participant's social reasoning. Both 'Yes' and 'No' responses are followed up by two comprehension questions. In contrast to the procedure used by Pennington et al (2023) who used open-ended comprehension questions, Millisecond's FPT procedure uses multiple-choice questions instead to simplify automatic scoring.
Task Procedure
Participants receive 20 social scenarios, one at a time. Ten of these scenarios are ones where a 'faux-pas' takes place (faux-pas positive), ten of these scenarios do not contain any faux-pas (faux-pas negative). The order of the scenarios is fixed. Participants get 8s to read each scenario before the question (q1) 'Did anyone say something they shouldn't have said or something awkward? Press the corresponding button' as well as two response button (Yes,No) appear below the scenario.
If participants press the 'Yes' button, the response is followed up by the question (q2) 'Who said something they shouldn't have said or something awkward? Please type their name' and four additional open-ended questions:
- 'Why shouldn't he/she have said it or why was it awkward?' (q3)
- 'Why do you think he/she said it?' (q4)
- Scenario-specific question: e.g. 'Did Vicky and Maria know each other?' (q5)
- 'How do you think X felt?' (q6)
Both, No-responses and Yes-responses are followed up by two multiple-choice comprehension questions with four response options, e.g. 'In the story, where was Vicky?' (q7) and 'Who was hosting the party?' (q8).
The faux-pas score for each scenario is based on the responses to q1 and q2: If a participant answers both questions correctly, a score of 1 is awarded, otherwise the participant receives a score of 0. Similarly, the comprehension score for each scenario requires participants to answer both comprehension questions (q7 & q8) correctly. If one or both are answered incorrectly, the participant receives a comprehension score of 0 for that scenario. The overall faux-pas scenario score is based on these two individual scores. In order to receive an overall score of 1, participants have to have a faux-pas score and and comprehension score of 1.
What it Measures
The Faux Pas Test (FPT) is a measure of people's detection of social 'faux-pas' as specific example of ToM abilities
Psychological domains
- Cognitive ToM: The ability to infer the beliefs and intentions of others
- Affective ToM: The ability to infer the emotional state of others
- Social Perception: Recognizing "rules" of social etiquette
- Working Memory: Participants must hold the details of the story in their head while simultaneously reasoning about the characters' internal states.
- Inhibitory Control: The ability to inhibit one's own knowledge to focus on a character's "false belief"
- Cognitive Flexibility: The ability to shift between different perspectives
- Language Comprehension: Ability to understand the literal meaning of the story before making social inferences
Main Performance Metrics
- Faux-pas Detection Score: ratio score of correct Faux-pas positive scenarios to correct Faux-pas negative scenarios; with higher scores indicating better ToM
Psychiatric Conditions
The following patient groups show impaired performance on the FPT
- Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
- Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
- Schizophrenia
- Bipolar Disorder
- Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)
- Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD)
- Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
- Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
A test of Theory-of-Mind (ToM) abilities that require social sensitivity (Stone et al, 1998, Gregory et al, 2002). Millisecond Software's test uses Pennington's et al (2023) materials, made available under the Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
Search Google Scholar for peer-reviewed, published research using the Inquisit Faux Pas Test (FPT).
Stone, V. E., Baron-Cohen, S., & Knight, R. T. (1998). Frontal Lobe Contributions to Theory of Mind. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 10(5), 640–656. https://doi.org/10.1162/089892998562942
Gregory, C., Lough, S., Stone, V., Erzinclioglu, S., Martin, L., Baron-Cohen, S., & Hodges, J. R. (2002). Theory of mind in patients with frontal variant frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer’s disease: Theoretical and practical implications. Brain: A Journal of Neurology, 125(4), 752–764. https:// doi.org/10.1093/brain/awf079
Pennington, C. R., Oxtoby, M. C.-S.-Y., & Shaw, D. J. (2023). Social cognitive disruptions in multiple sclerosis: The role of executive (dys)function. Neuropsychology. https://doi.org/10.1037~neu0000917 https://osf.io/2bhmy/