Kynast Jana, Polyakova Maryna, Quinque Eva Maria, Hinz Andreas, Villringer Arno, Schroeter Matthias L
Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
LIFE - Leipzig Research Centre for Civilization Diseases, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
Front Aging Neurosci. 2021 Jan 28;12:607107. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2020.607107. eCollection 2020.
The reliable, valid and economic assessment of social cognition is more relevant than ever in the field of clinical psychology. Theory of Mind is one of the most important socio-cognitive abilities but standardized assessment instruments for adults are rare. The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) is well-established and captures the ability to identify mental states from gaze. Here, we computed standard scores for the German version of the RMET derived from a large, community-dwelling sample of healthy adults (20-79 years). The standardization sample contains 966 healthy adult individuals of the population-based Leipzig Research Center for Civilization Diseases (LIFE) study. Before standardization, weighting factors were applied to match the current sample with distribution characteristics of the German population regarding age, sex, and education. RMET scores were translated into percentage ranks for men and women of five age groups (20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60+ years). Age-specific percentage ranks are provided for men and women. Independent of age, men present a larger variance in test scores compared to women. Within the specific age groups, women score higher and their scoring range is less variable. With increasing age, the scoring variance increases in both men and women. This is the first study providing age- and sex-specific RMET standard scores. Data was weighted to match German population characteristics, enabling the application of standard scores across German-speaking areas. Our results contribute to the standardized assessment of socio-cognitive abilities in clinical diagnostics.
在临床心理学领域，对社会认知进行可靠、有效且经济的评估比以往任何时候都更为重要。心理理论是最重要的社会认知能力之一，但针对成年人的标准化评估工具却很少见。《读心术眼测试》（RMET）已得到广泛认可，它能够捕捉从眼神中识别心理状态的能力。在此，我们计算了德语版RMET的标准分数，该分数源自一个大型的、居住在社区的健康成年人样本（年龄在20 - 79岁之间）。标准化样本包含了基于人群的莱比锡文明病研究中心（LIFE）研究中的966名健康成年个体。在标准化之前，应用了加权因子，以使当前样本在年龄、性别和教育程度方面与德国人口的分布特征相匹配。RMET分数被转换为五个年龄组（20 - 29岁、30 - 39岁、40 - 49岁、50 - 59岁、60岁及以上）男性和女性的百分比排名。提供了按年龄划分的男性和女性的百分比排名。与女性相比，无论年龄大小，男性在测试分数上的方差更大。在特定年龄组内，女性得分更高，且她们的得分范围变化较小。随着年龄的增长，男性和女性的得分方差均增加。这是第一项提供按年龄和性别划分的RMET标准分数的研究。数据经过加权以匹配德国人口特征，从而使标准分数能够在德语区应用。我们的结果有助于临床诊断中社会认知能力的标准化评估。
