Psychometric Refinement of the Interpretation Inflexibility Task: Assessing Validity and Reliability of Two Short Forms

Interpretation inflexibility, which measures difficulty revising one’s initial interpretation of an ambiguous scenario, has been linked to increased negative affective outcomes. The Interpretation Inflexibility Task (IIT) is a useful tool in measuring inflexibility; however, it faces limitations in the length of the task, along with the lack of opportunity for the task to be used for longitudinal studies. The current study collected data from three separate online studies ( N  = 635) to explore validation and reliability of two short forms (SFs) of the original IIT. Each SF was generated by randomly assigning six items measuring negative inflexibility and six items measuring positive inflexibility, derived from the original 24-item IIT. Results from ANOVA analyses suggest both SFs to be comparable alternatives to the original IIT. These findings aid in addressing prior limitations of the original IIT around task length and re-use for longitudinal studies, and are suitable alternatives to the original task.