Friday, May 23, 2025
5/23/2025
Social Cognition Battery for Psychosis-Risk (SCB-PR): A Psychometric and Validation Study - Project Summary The present application is in response to Strategy 3.2.B of the NIMH strategic plan, which calls for the development and refinement of research methods that can be used to inform and test personalized interventions. This goal will be met by conducting a thorough psychometric evaluation process to identify sound measures of social cognition that are suitable for use in populations at clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR). Social cognition refers to the processes that are involved in how individuals understand and respond to social information, and CHR individuals show impaired social cognitive performance that is related to poorer clinical course and social functioning. Social cognition is therefore an important treatment target. While a handful of social cognitive assessment measures have been validated in older, chronically ill populations, evidence suggests that the same psychometric properties do not transfer to less-severe populations or earlier stages of illness. Treatment development and evaluation in CHR is therefore limited by poor measurement which lacks sensitivity to individual differences and change over time, applicability to adolescent and young adult populations (characteristic of the CHR period), and reliable and valid characterization of social cognitive ability. It is imperative that sensitive and psychometrically sound measures be identified for accurate assessment and measurement of treatment response in this unique population. The first phase of the proposed project will collect data from 180 CHR individuals and 90 matched healthy individuals to evaluate the psychometric properties of a comprehensive battery of widely used and novel social cognitive measures (Specific Aim 1). Data from this initial psychometric study will also be used to improve and refine the measures. In the second phase, the refined battery will be administered to an additional group of 120 CHR and 60 healthy individuals in a longitudinal study with assessments occurring at baseline and 12 months later. Data from this second study will be used to verify the psychometric properties of the final battery (Specific Aim 2) and to examine how these tasks relate to current (i.e., external validity) and future (i.e., predictive validity) clinical and social functioning (Specific Aim 3). Performance of this final battery will also be compared to that of the most commonly used, but unvalidated, instruments to determine if the final battery improves upon the current field standards (i.e., incremental validity). The results of this project will provide the field with a next-generation social cognition battery that will aid in the identification of individuals who are at greatest risk for developing a psychotic disorder. The battery will also be invaluable for encouraging and testing personalized treatment development and models of illness progression.
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