Interpersonal Perception Task-15
(20 minutes)

By Mark Costanzo and Dane Archer

This videotape is abbreviated from the original 30-item INTERPERSONAL PERCEPTION TASK (IPT). The IPT-15 has fifteen scenes, and is therefore half the length of the IPT. The IPT-15 is both shorter and less difficult than the original. Administration time has been cut from 40 minutes to 20 minutes--an important consideration for research projects using multiple measures of a battery of tests.

Norm group data (n=530) show that accuracy is significantly above chance for all fifteen scenes in the IPT-15. These data also show that test reliability and validity are generally higher than the values found for the original IPT.

The IPT-15 retains all the important design features of the IPT: questions that have objectively correct answers; full communications repertoire (verbal and nonverbal channels); spontaneous behavior and unscripted conversation; a large number (29) of different encoders; and items tapping five different categories of social interaction--status, kinship, intimacy, competition, and deception. The nature and characteristics of the IPT-15 are described in detail in an IPT-15 GUIDE FOR RESEARCHERS AND TEACHERS.