Utility of an Observational Social Skill Assessment as a Measure of Social Cognition in Autism.
Grace Lee Simmons, Sara Ioannou, Jessica V Smith and 3 others
PMID 33034159WHAT IT FOUND
Youth with autism could tell when a conversation partner was interested, but rated bored partners as significantly less disengaged than trained coders did.
The assessment captures social behavior well, but the bored-condition score does not align with other social measures.
Key findings
01Participants rated interested confederates as significantly more engaged than bored ones, but their ratings were more neutral than the trained coder's ratings, suggesting they were relatively unaware of the disinterest.
02The Conversation Rating Scale change score correlated with social cognition tasks, but the CASS-Bored composite and Social Adaptation Index did not align with established metrics of social behavior.
03Confederates instructed to act bored struggled to adhere to the protocol, with only 62% rated as fully adherent compared to 96% for interested confederates.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Confederates instructed to act bored had significant difficulty adhering to the protocol (only 62% rated as fully adherent), which may have weakened the manipulation. The sample was relatively homogeneous (86% Caucasian, 100% non-Hispanic) and had an IQ ≥ 70, limiting generalizability to more diverse or lower-functioning populations. The study did not measure social motivation, which may explain why some participants did not adjust their behavior even if they perceived the boredom. The use of difference scores (Social Adaptation Index and CRS-change score) is statistically challenged in recent literature as they may not add information beyond the component scores.
Declared interests
Research support provided by the National Institutes of Health, Extramural. No other conflicts declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the participant's failure to rate the bored peer as highly disengaged as a deficit in social cognition alone. The confederates struggled to act bored (only 62% adherence), so the peer's behavior may have been ambiguous, and the participant's rating may reflect the confederate's performance rather than just the participant's perception.