Construct validity of two tests of social cognition in schizophrenia

The construct validity was examined of two measures of social cognition in schizophrenia: (1) a measure of differential deficit in concrete versus abstract social cue perception and (2) a measure of differential deficit in concrete versus abstract situational feature recognition. A significant relationship between the two difference scores would be expected if both measured differential cognition of abstract and concrete social information. This correlation would be expected to remain significant even after the influence of a generalized deficit in social cognition was partialed out. Twenty-three subjects with DSM-III-R diagnoses of schizophrenia completed a videotaped measure of social cue perception and a pencil-and-paper measure of situational feature recognition. Results showed that standardized residual scores representing the difference in abstract and concrete cue perception and representing the difference in abstract and concrete situational feature recognition were significantly associated. Implications of these strategies for understanding and remediating the social cognitive deficits of schizophrenia are discussed.