Neuropsychology and Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Behav Brain Funct. 2010 Feb 3;6:10. doi: 10.1186/1744-9081-6-10.
The assessment of social attribution skills in children can potentially identify and quantify developmental difficulties related to autism spectrum disorders and related conditions. However, relatively little is known about how these skills develop in typically developing children. Therefore the present study aimed to map the trajectory of social attribution skill acquisition in typically developing children from a young age.
In the conventional social attribution task (SAT) participants ascribe feelings to moving shapes and describe their interaction in social terms. However, this format requires that participants understand both, that an inanimate shape is symbolic, and that its action is social in nature. This may be challenging for young children, and may be a potential confounder in studies of children with developmental disorders. Therefore we developed a modified SAT (mSAT) using animate figures (e.g. animals) to simplify the task. We used the SAT and mSAT to examine social attribution skill development in 154 healthy children (76 boys, 78 girls), ranging in age from 6 to 13 years and investigated the relationship between social attribution ability and executive function.
The mSAT revealed a steady improvement in social attribution skills from the age of 6 years, and a significant advantage for girls compared to boys. In contrast, children under the age of 9 years performed at baseline on the conventional format and there were no gender differences apparent. Performance on neither task correlated with executive function after controlling for age and verbal IQ, suggesting that social attribution ability is independent of cognitive functioning. The present findings indicate that the mSAT is a sensitive measure of social attribution skills from a young age. This should be carefully considered when choosing assessments for young children and those with developmental disorders.
评估儿童的社会归因技能可以潜在地识别和量化与自闭症谱系障碍和相关疾病相关的发展困难。然而，对于这些技能在正常发育儿童中的发展方式，我们知之甚少。因此，本研究旨在从幼儿时期开始描绘正常发育儿童社会归因技能习得的轨迹。
在传统的社会归因任务（SAT）中，参与者将情感归因于移动的形状，并以社会术语描述它们的相互作用。然而，这种格式要求参与者理解两个方面，即无生命的形状是象征性的，并且其动作本质上是社会性的。这对于幼儿来说可能具有挑战性，并且可能是研究发育障碍儿童的潜在混杂因素。因此，我们使用动画人物（例如动物）开发了一种改良的 SAT（mSAT），以简化任务。我们使用 SAT 和 mSAT 来研究 154 名健康儿童（76 名男孩，78 名女孩）的社会归因技能发展，年龄从 6 岁到 13 岁不等，并调查了社会归因能力与执行功能之间的关系。
mSAT 显示，从 6 岁开始，社会归因技能稳步提高，女孩比男孩具有明显优势。相比之下，年龄在 9 岁以下的儿童在传统格式下的表现基线较低，并且没有明显的性别差异。在控制年龄和言语智商后，无论是任务的表现都与执行功能无关，这表明社会归因能力独立于认知功能。本研究结果表明，mSAT 是一种从幼儿时期开始测量社会归因技能的敏感方法。在为幼儿和发育障碍儿童选择评估方法时，应仔细考虑这一点。
