Abstract
Background The Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition (MASC) has been shown to have good psychometric properties. Objectives To translate, adapt, and validate a Spanish version of the MASC (MASC-SP) for use in patients with Asperger's syndrome. Aims To develop an ecological and standardized assessment of social cognition for the Spanish-speaking community. Methods MASC-SP was administered to a sample of twenty-two patients diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome (3 women, 19 men; mean age 21.94) and twenty-six healthy volunteers (9 women, 17 men; mean age 22.92). Other measures of social cognition were also administered: the Strange Stories Task, the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test, and a emotion recognition task. A brief scale for cognitive evaluation in psychiatric patients was also administered (SCIP). Results The Asperger group scored lower on the MASC-SP (p = 0.000), had fewer correct answers on the emotion recognition test (p = 0.000), and poorer understanding of social situations (p = 0.000). The area under the ROC curves was 0.814 for the MASC-SP, 0.795 for the emotion recognition test, 0.912 for the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test, and 0.806 for the Strange Stories Task. The Asperger group did not show cognitive deterioration and MASC-SP was proven to be independent for other general cognitive functions. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.86, demonstrating satisfactory internal reliability (> 0.80) very similar to the original instrument (0.84). Conclusions The Spanish adaptation of the MASC can be a useful, ecologically valid tool for assessing social cognition.
Published Version
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