Mallawaarachchi Sumudu Rasangi, Cotton Susan Maree, Anderson Jacqueline, Killackey Eóin, Allott Kelly Anne
a Orygen, The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health , Parkville , Victoria , Australia.
b Centre for Youth Mental Health , University of Melbourne , Parkville , Victoria , Australia.
Cogn Neuropsychiatry. 2019 Jan;24(1):65-79. doi: 10.1080/13546805.2019.1568864. Epub 2019 Jan 24.
The aim of the study was to elucidate the association between performance-related neurocognitive abilities and Theory of Mind (ToM) as measured by the Hinting Task (HT) performance and investigate the psychometric properties of the HT for use in First-Episode Psychosis (FEP).
Cross-sectional data of 132 participants with FEP, aged 15-25 years, enrolled in a randomised controlled trial of vocational intervention, were analysed. A comprehensive cognitive battery including social cognitive and neurocognitive measures, a social and occupational functioning measure and psychopathological measures, were used. Psychometric properties were measured through bivariate correlations and associations with neurocognitive domains were assessed through hierarchical regression.
Low convergent validity of the HT with other ToM measures, moderate discriminant validity with an emotion recognition task, low predictive validity with social and occupational functioning, and high internal consistency were revealed. HT performance was significantly associated with verbal reasoning and verbal memory.
Results provide preliminary evidence of low convergent validity and moderate discriminant validity of the HT in FEP, and the influence of verbal reasoning and verbal memory on HT performance, indicating that caution is warranted when employing the HT as a screening tool in isolation for detection of ToM deficits in FEP.
本研究的目的是阐明与表现相关的神经认知能力与心理理论（ToM）之间的关联，该关联通过暗示任务（HT）的表现来衡量，并研究HT在首发精神病（FEP）中的心理测量特性。
分析了132名年龄在15至25岁之间、参与职业干预随机对照试验的FEP参与者的横断面数据。使用了一个综合认知测试组，包括社会认知和神经认知测量、社会和职业功能测量以及精神病理学测量。通过双变量相关性测量心理测量特性，并通过分层回归评估与神经认知领域的关联。
揭示了HT与其他ToM测量方法的低收敛效度、与情绪识别任务的中等区分效度、与社会和职业功能的低预测效度以及高内部一致性。HT表现与言语推理和言语记忆显著相关。
结果提供了初步证据，表明HT在FEP中的收敛效度较低且区分效度中等，以及言语推理和言语记忆对HT表现的影响，这表明在单独使用HT作为筛查工具来检测FEP中的ToM缺陷时应谨慎。
