Compared to single-component Bose-Einstein condensates, spinor Bose-Einstein condensates display much richer dynamics. In addition to density oscillations, spinor Bose-Einstein condensates exhibit intriguing spin dynamics that is associated with population transfer between different hyperfine components. This work analyzes the validity of the widely employed single-mode approximation when describing the spin dynamics in response to a quench of the system Hamiltonian. The single-mode approximation assumes that the different hyperfine states all share the same time-independent spatial mode. This implies that the resulting spin Hamiltonian only depends on the spin interaction strength and not on the density interaction strength. Taking the spinor sodium Bose-Einstein condensate in the $f=1$ hyperfine manifold as an example and working within the mean-field theory framework, it is found numerically that the single-mode approximation misses, in some parameter regimes, intricate details of the spin and spatial dynamics. We develop a physical picture that explains the observed phenomenon. Moreover, using that the population oscillations described by the single-mode approximation enter into the effective potential felt by the mean-field spinor, we derive a semi-quantitative condition for when dynamical mean-field induced corrections to the single-mode approximation are relevant. Our mean-field results have implications for a variety of published and planned experimental studies.
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