Psychometric Properties of the Social Attribution Task and Its Relationship With Cognitive Functions

The Social Attribution Task-Multiple Choice (SAT-MC) battery is one of tests used to evaluate social cognitive capacity. This study aimed to examine the reliability and validity of the SAT-MC for the first time in healthy adults and in individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia, then to investigate the effect on SAT-MC performance of clinical variables in schizophrenia patients.

The study included 207 volunteers; 157 healthy adults, and 50 individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia. All the study participants were applied with the Raven Standard Progressive Matrices Test (RSPM), the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET), and the SAT-MC.

The results of the analyses showed that the SAT-MC had content and criteria validity in both the individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia and in the healthy control group. Internal consistency of test was calculated as McDonald's omega coefficient 0.81, and the test-retest reliability was found to be 0.75. Hierarchical multivariate regression analysis showed a predictive effect of RSPM and RMET on the SAT points.

The results of this study demonstrated that SAT was valid and reliable in evaluating social attribution skills in both a healthy and a schizophrenia sample group. Social attribution skill was found to be related to the perceptual reasoning and abstract thinking skills of neurocognition. The social cognition dimension was determined to be related to the theory of mind skills. Insufficient social attribution skills, seen especially in schizophrenia patients, can lead to social withdrawal and isolation by disrupting interactions and relationships with others.