Interpersonal Perception Task Research Articles

Mistakes in interpersonal perceptions: Social cognition in aggressive forensic psychiatry patients.

While there is an established link between untreated psychosis and aggression, an enhanced understanding of the role of social cognition is still needed. To examine social cognitive functioning among patients in a specialist forensic mental health service who had been deemed not criminally responsible for acts of violence due to a psychotic disorder. It was hypothesised, first, that such patients would show reduced social cognitive functioning compared with healthy, nonviolent comparison participants and, second, that those who continued to be aggressive while inpatients would demonstrate significant reductions compared to the now nonaggressive group. The study samples were of 10 recently aggressive and 15 not-recently aggressive patients and 20 healthy, nonviolent comparison participants. Each completed the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ), the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test-Revised (RMET) and the Interpersonal Perception Task-15 (IPT-15). There was no significance between group differences on the RMET and TEQ. The patient group as a whole, however, showed significant interpersonal misperceptions, with specific misperceptions on IPT-15 deception and kinship subscales, while at the same time lacking self-awareness of their errors. Misperceptions on the IPT-15 competition subscale were unique to recently aggressive patients. Select aspects of reduced social cognitive functioning were found among not criminally responsible patients with psychosis who had committed violent acts and who continued to act aggressively while forensic inpatients. These findings enhance our understanding of the role of social cognition in predisposing toward violence and the potential importance of incorporating interventions which improve social cognition directly. We suggest also the potential for future research using virtual reality technologies in treatment.

Emotion perception and theory of mind in adolescents with major depression.

The research of theory of mind (ToM) and emotion perception (EP) in adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD) is scarce, and no study to date has investigated the association between EP and long-term outcomes of adolescents with MDD. The aim of the current study was to evaluate ToM and EP in adolescents with MDD, as compared to healthy controls (HCs). In addition, we aimed to assess the association between impairment in ToM and EP, depressive symptom severity, and long-term outcome in the MDD group. We compared the performance of 14 adolescents with MDD and 25 HC in the Facial Expression Recognition Task (FERT) and the Interpersonal Perception Task. We followed up with the MDD group 2 years later to assess the level of their depressive symptoms using the Children's Depression Rating Scale-Revised (CDRS-R). No differences were found between adolescents with MDD and HC in the ToM and FERT tasks. Also, within the MDD group, there was no association between the severity of depressive symptoms and task performance. In the MDD group, there was a significant correlation between lower levels of accuracy in the FERT during the index depressive episode and lower CDRS-R scores on follow-up 2 years later (r2 = 0.35, p = 0.021). EP impairments in adolescents with MDD might predict worse long-term outcome. Further research is needed to verify our findings and to assess for a possible neurobiological underpinning for the state and trait impairments in EP in adolescents with MDD.

Individuals with internet gaming disorder have similar neurocognitive impairments and social cognitive dysfunctions as methamphetamine-dependent patients.

Cognitive dysfunction may be a critical aspect of addictive disorders. This study aimed to examine whether individuals with Internet gaming disorder (IGD) have similar neurocognitive dysfunctions and social cognitive impairments as methamphetamine dependence (MD) patients. The participants included 30 individuals with IGD, 30 MD patients and 30 normal controls (NCs). All participants completed the digit span task, Iowa gambling task (IGT), WCST and the Interpersonal Perception Task-15 (IPT-15). The results showed that the IGD and MD groups had lower forwards and backwards scores, choices of advantageous minus disadvantageous decks, mean amount of money earned, number of categories completed, percentage of conceptual level responses, and IPT-15 total and factor scores compared with the NC group. Forwards and backwards scores, number of categories completed, percentage of conceptual level responses, choices from advantageous minus disadvantageous decks and mean amount of money earned were lower in the IGD group than in the MD group. The number of cards chosen from decks A, B, C, and D, total response errors, perseverative errors and failure to maintain set were higher in the IGD and MD groups than in NCs. Total response errors, perseverative errors and failure to maintain set were higher in the IGD than the MD group. The results revealed that neurocognitive deficits and social cognitive dysfunction in IGD are similar to those in MD. From a cognitive perspective, these results supported IGD as an addictive spectrum disorder and might lead to a better assessment of therapeutic efficacy.

Jumping to social conclusions?: The implications of early and uninformed social judgements in first episode psychosis.

Although social cognition is now understood to be a key determinant of functional outcome in psychosis, the factors associated with impaired performance on tasks of social cognition still remain unclear. Jumping to conclusions (JTC) is a cognitive bias that is commonly observed in psychosis, and features of this bias may be implicated in the accurate processing of social information. In the present study, a sample of patients in the early stages of psychosis (n = 35) and demographically matched community controls (n = 35) were presented with a modified version of the Interpersonal Perception Task in which video clips of naturalistic social scenarios were paused at 3 predetermined time points. All participants were prompted to answer a series of questions during these time points to examine the processes by which individuals arrive at social judgments. A JTC response pattern was defined as endorsing overconfident responses and a low need for additional social information at the beginning time points of the video clips when limited social cues were available. Compared with controls, a greater proportion of patients exhibited a response pattern suggestive of JTC, which was also strongly associated with poorer overall task accuracy, regardless of group status. Results from this study provide evidence that overconfidence in premature and uninformed social judgments has direct consequences for the accurate processing of social information. Furthermore, this response pattern, which was more characteristic of early psychosis patients, may represent JTC in real-world social contexts, and could be an important therapeutic target for social cognition in the early stages of illness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN SOCIAL JUDGEMENTS RELATE TO SOCIAL EXPERIENCE ON THE JOB FOR OLDER ADULTS

Older adults (OA) are worse than young adults (YA) at recognizing emotional facial expressions (Ruffman, Henry, Livingstone, & Phillips, 2008). In particular, age differences in anger recognition remain even when other emotions improve via additional context (e.g., Richter, Dietzel, & Kunzmann, 2011; Stanley & Isaacowitz, 2015). We investigated whether job experiences with greater social components would relate to better anger recognition and interpersonal perception in OA. We expected OA who held jobs with more social requirements would be better at anger recognition and interpersonal perception, but that this would differ by gender. OA (N=194) reported their present job and completed an emotion perception task and the Interpersonal Perception Task-15 (IPT-15; Costanzo & Archer, 1989). Ratings from the O*Net database were used to determine the degree of social requirements (0-100) for reported jobs. For older females, more social experience in their present job was related to better anger recognition (r =.45,p=.014). More face-to-face experience in the job held the longest was related to better overall emotion perception in older females (r=.20,p=.047). For older males, more social experience in their present job was related to worse anger recognition (r=-.45, p=.029). More coordination and leadership experience in the job held the longest was related to better interpersonal perception in older males (r =.28, p=.010). These results suggest gender is important when examining the degree to which social experience in the workplace relates to social judgments. Future work should investigate whether gender differences in subordinate vs leadership roles can account for these findings.

Women's Body Odor during Ovulation Improves Social Perception in Single Men.

Previous research has shown that men's mating motivation may increase following exposure to women's body odor during ovulation. In the current study, we examined whether exposure to women's fertility odor cues influences social perception among men, while focusing on the role of men's relationship status in moderating this reaction. We collected body odor samples from 43 women during ovulation and during the luteal phase and exposed 85 men to these odor samples while they performed an emotion recognition task and an interpersonal perception task. Single men were better at recognizing emotional facial expressions following exposure to odor cues of high fertility as compared with odor cues of low fertility. No such effect was identified in pair-bonded men. In support of this finding, single men became more accurate on the interpersonal perception task following exposure to odor cues of high fertility, while pair-bonded men became less accurate after such exposure. Collectively, the results suggest that exposure to women's fertility odor cues improves social perception among single men, while it impairs such perception among pair-bonded men. We suggest that these effects may result from increased mating motivation following exposure to odor cues of fertility, which in turn encourages accurate social perception among single men while promoting an avoidant attitude toward social stimuli among pair-bonded men.

A scent of romance: human putative pheromone affects men's sexual cognition.

Previous studies suggest that the putative human pheromone estratetraenol affects several systems underlying human functioning and appears to activate neural systems that are known to affect sexual behavior. In this study, we investigated whether exposure to estratetraenol affects men’s social cognition abilities. In the first experiment, men performed the Interpersonal Perception task while being exposed to estratetraenol and to a control solution. Men performed the task with better accuracy while being exposed to estratetraenol. This improvement was evident especially in the Intimacy category where participants evaluated romantic relationships. In a second experiment, we exposed a different sample of men to estratetraenol and to a control solution while performing a task that implicitly measured their emotional reaction to photos depicting two humans either romantically touching or not, with a control condition of two inanimate objects either touching or not. We found that the participants’ emotional reaction to touch was stronger under exposure to estratetraenol. Together, these results suggest that exposure to estratetraenol may trigger a change in men’s social cognition, especially in sexually related situations.

Effects of oxytocin on empathy, introspective accuracy, and social symptoms in schizophrenia: A 12-week twice-daily randomized controlled trial

The effects of intranasal oxytocin, a neuropeptide involved in prosocial behavior and modulation of neural networks underlying social cognition and emotion regulation, have been studied in schizophrenia. We tested the hypothesis that twice-daily intranasal oxytocin administered for 12-weeks would improve tertiary and exploratory outcomes of self-reported social symptoms, empathy and introspective accuracy from the Jarskog et al. (2017) randomized controlled trial. Sixty-eight stable outpatients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder were randomized to receive oxytocin (24 IU twice daily) or placebo. Introspective accuracy was assessed with the Specific Level of Functioning Scale and the Interpersonal Perception Task. Empathy was assessed with the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), and social symptoms were assessed with the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale and the Green et al. Paranoid Thoughts Scales. Outcomes were assessed at baseline, six, and twelve weeks. Results demonstrated limited effect of oxytocin with some improvement on the IRI Perspective-Taking Subscale. No additional between-group differences emerged on self-reported symptoms, empathy, or introspective accuracy.

Risperidone improves interpersonal perception and executive function in patients with schizophrenia.

ObjectiveTo investigate whether risperidone improves social cognitive impairments and executive dysfunction in people with schizophrenia.MethodsFifty-six patients who met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia were allocated to a risperidone treatment group (RTG, n=28) and a typical antipsychotic treatment group (TATG, n=28). Twenty-eight healthy volunteers were recruited as the normal control group (NCG). The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, Interpersonal Perception Task-15 (IPT-15), and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) were rated at baseline and after 4 and 12 weeks of treatment with risperidone or typical antipsychotics.ResultsRisperidone and typical antipsychotics decreased Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale scores for total psychopathology and positive and negative symptoms. At baseline, in the IPT-15, total scores and five factor scores, as well as the number of categories completed and the percentage of conceptual level responses, were significantly lower in the RTG and TATG than in the NCG, whereas total response errors, perseverative errors, and failure to maintain set were significantly higher in the patient groups than in the NCG. Repeated measures analysis of variance revealed a significant main effect of time period (baseline, 4 weeks, and 12 weeks) for IPT-15 scores and WCST performances, and significant interactions for time period × group (RTG and TATG). Multivariate analysis of variance showed no significant differences between the RTG and TATG on IPT-15 scores at 4 weeks, but there were significant differences between these two groups at 12 weeks. Significant differences were also found between the RTG and TATG on WCST performances at 4 and 12 weeks.ConclusionIndividuals with schizophrenia have impairments in social cognitive and executive function, which might be improved by risperidone.

The oxytocin receptor gene and social perception

Social perception is an important prerequisite for successful social interaction, because it helps to gain information about behaviors, thoughts, and feelings of interaction partners. Previous pharmacological studies have emphasized the relevance of the oxytocin system for social perception abilities, while knowledge on genetic contributions is still scarce. In the endeavor to fill this gap in the literature, the current study searches for associations between participants’ social perception abilities as measured by the interpersonal perception task (IPT) and the rs2268498 polymorphism on the OXTR-gene, which has repeatedly been linked to processes relevant to social functioning. N = 105 healthy participants were experimentally tested with the IPT and genotyped for the rs2268498 polymorphism. T-allele carriers (TT and TC genotypes) exhibited significantly better performance in the IPT than carriers of the CC-genotype. This difference was also significant for the subscales measuring the strength of social bonding (kinship and intimacy). As in previous studies, T-allele carriers exhibited better performance in measures of social processing indicating that the rs2268498 polymorphism is an important candidate for understanding the genetic basis of social functioning.

Nonverbal Decoding on Facebook: Applying the IPT-15 and the SSI to Personality Judgments

This study uses the lens model paradigm to explore whether two interpersonal sensitivity tests [i.e., Interpersonal Perception Task (IPT-15), Social Skills Inventory (SSI)] are associated with the accuracy of personality judgments made from Facebook (FB) profile pages. Target participants’ (N = 100) personality, self-monitoring, and FB honesty were self-reported, and the FB profile of each target was downloaded. Observers (N = 35) completed the IPT-15 and SSI and then estimated each profile owner’s personality from the profile pages. Observers’ scores on the IPT-15 were positively associated with the accuracy of estimates of targets’ extraversion and neuroticism. Observers’ SSI-ES scores were positively associated with the accuracy of estimates of targets’ agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness. Characteristics of targets, such as self-monitoring, FB honesty, and overall FB use, also affected the accuracy of estimates. Results demonstrate that offline measures of sensitivity are associated with the accuracy of online personality judgments.

Social perception in people with eating disorders

ObjectiveSocial perception is a key aspect of social cognition which has so far not been investigated in eating disorders (ED). This study aimed to investigate social perception in individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN). MethodsOutpatients with AN (restricting subtype [AN-R]: n=51; binge-purge subtype [AN-BP]: n=26) or BN (n=57) and 50 healthy control (HC) participants completed the Interpersonal Perception Task (IPT-15). This is an ecologically valid task, which consists of 15 video clips, depicting complex social situations relating to intimacy, status, kinship, competition and deception. The participants have to assess relationships between protagonists’ based on non-verbal cues. ResultsOverall, there was no difference between groups on the IPT total score and subscale scores. Group differences on the Intimacy subscale approached significance so post hoc comparisons were carried out. HCs performed significantly better than AN-R participants in determining the degree of intimacy between others. ConclusionsSocial perception is largely preserved in ED patients. Individuals with AN-R show impairments in identifying intimacy in social situations, this may be due to the lack of relationship experience. Further research into different aspects of social cognition is required to establish the link between interpersonal difficulties and ED psychopathology.

Theory of mind performance in women with posttraumatic stress disorder related to childhood abuse

Key questions remain unaddressed concerning the nature of interpersonal functioning in trauma survivors, including the ability to understand and interpret other people's thoughts and feelings. Here, we investigate theory of mind (ToM) performance of women with PTSD related to childhood abuse in comparison to healthy controls. Participants completed two ToM tasks, the Interpersonal Perception Task-15 (IPT-15) and the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task - Revised (RMET). Relative to controls, women with a history of childhood trauma had difficulty recognizing familial relationships depicted in the IPT-15 (P = 0.005). No other category of the IPT-15 showed significant group differences. In addition, while healthy women displayed faster RMET reaction times to emotionally valenced mental states (positive: P = 0.003; negative: P = 0.016) compared with neutral mental states, the PTSD group showed similar reaction times across all valences. The presence of dissociative symptoms (e.g., disengagement, amnesia, identity dissociation) was strongly associated with hindered accuracy of complex mental state identification and altered perception of kinship interactions. Women with PTSD stemming from childhood trauma show changes in ToM abilities particularly those often involved in the interpretation of family interactions. In addition, individuals with PTSD showed slower reaction times during the recognition of complex mental states from emotionally salient facial/eye expressions in comparison with healthy subjects.

Improving social perception in schizophrenia: The role of oxytocin

Previous research has shown that patients with schizophrenia are impaired in a wide range of social cognitive abilities, including emotion recognition, empathy for others, and mental perspective-taking. Recent studies suggest that a dysfunction of the oxytocinergic system contributes to the social impairment in schizophrenia. Accordingly, the present study sought to examine whether patients with schizophrenia would improve in a social perception task after taking a single dose of oxytocin, as compared to a placebo.Thirty-five patients diagnosed with schizophrenia were compared with 46 psychologically healthy matched controls on their recognition of kinship and intimacy, using the Interpersonal Perception Task. All participants received a single intranasal dose of 24IU oxytocin or placebo, one week apart.Overall, the participants were more accurate in judging intimacy and kinship following the administration of oxytocin, as opposed to a placebo. However, when comparing patients with controls, only the recognition of kinship improved significantly in the patient group, whereas no such effect was observed in the control group or in the recognition of intimacy in either group.This is one of the first studies to demonstrate that social perception in schizophrenia can be improved by the administration of oxytocin and that patients show a greater treatment effect than controls.

An Examination of Social Intelligence Development in Preservice Music Teachers

The purpose of this study was to determine if preservice music educators specifically develop social intelligence during their student teaching. Sixty-six undergraduate senior music education students were administered the Interpersonal Perception Task–15 immediately prior to and directly after the completion of their 15-week student teaching placements. Additionally, participants were asked to list the top three skills they felt they had developed and/or improved on the most during their student teaching. Results of a Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test indicated no significant differences between the pre– and post–student teaching Interpersonal Perception Task–15 scores. From a total of 198 comments, 53% of skills developed and/or improved on the most during the student teaching were nonsocial skills and 47% were social skills. Additionally, 48.5% of the responses included Teaching Skills, 33.3% involved Personal Skills, and 18.2% were Musical Skills. Further breakdown of comments revealed the most frequently listed skills were “Classroom management/Discipline,” “Lesson planning/Preparation,” “Pacing,” “Communication,” and “Ear training/Listening skills,” in that order.

Patients with bipolar disorder show impaired performance on complex tests of social cognition

The literature concerning social cognitive performance in people with bipolar disorder (BD) reveals a mixed pattern of findings. We compared performance between patients with BD and matched controls on two social cognitive tasks that involved: (i) the decoding of mental states from pictures of eyes (Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test), and (ii) a video-based test that requires participants to discriminate social cues to make interpersonal judgments (Interpersonal Perception Task-15; IPT-15). We also sought to evaluate the association between symptom severity, social functioning, and social cognitive ability in patients with BD. Relative to controls, patients with BD were impaired at discriminating mental states from pictures of eyes and in making complex social judgments. Impaired responding on the IPT-15 was also associated with reduced psychosocial functioning. These results provide evidence of impaired performance on complex tests of social cognition in patients with BD. Impairments in social cognition may be associated with well-documented declines in the frequency of social interactions and development of interpersonal relationships found in this patient population.

Oxytocin facilitates accurate perception of competition in men and kinship in women

Despite the dominant role of the hormone oxytocin (OT) in social behavior, little is known about the role of OT in the perception of social relationships. Furthermore, it is unclear whether there are sex differences in the way that OT affects social perception. Here, we employed a double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover design to investigate the effect of OT on accurate social perception. Following treatment, 62 participants completed the Interpersonal Perception Task, a method of assessing the accuracy of social judgments that requires identification of the relationship between people interacting in real life video clips divided into three categories: kinship, intimacy and competition. The findings suggest that OT had a general effect on improving accurate perception of social interactions. Furthermore, we show that OT also involves sex-specific characteristics. An interaction between treatment, task category and sex indicated that OT had a selective effect on improving kinship recognition in women, but not in men, whereas men's performance was improved following OT only for competition recognition. It is concluded that the gender-specific findings reported here may point to some biosocial differences in the effect of OT which may be expressed in women's tendency for communal and familial social behavior as opposed to men's tendency for competitive social behavior.

The Influence of Social Intelligence on Effective Music Teaching

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of social intelligence on effective music teaching. Forty teachers from “exemplary programs” and “more challenging programs” across band, chorus, orchestra, and general public school music programs were administered the Interpersonal Perception Task—15 (IPT-15). In addition, 84 external evaluators viewed teaching excerpts of 12 “exemplary” and “challenged” teachers and rated the (a) overall effectiveness and (b) main attribute that influenced their evaluations of each teaching excerpt. Results indicated no significant differences between the IPT-15 scores of “exemplary” teachers and “challenged” teachers.The external evaluators rated teachers identified as “exemplary” significantly higher than they rated teachers labeled as “challenged.” The majority of attributes influencing external evaluators’ ratings of overall teacher effectiveness were social, constituting more than 85% of all responses. All teachers who demonstrated effective social skills were perceived as effective teachers. Effective communication skills were the most frequently cited attributes for “exemplary” teachers, whereas ineffective classroom management was the most listed attribute for why teachers were rated ineffective.

The Challenges of Ecological Validity in the Measurement of Social Perception in Schizophrenia

Ecological validity may be substantiated by verisimilitude (the stimuli and cognitive processing of a test resemble the stimuli and cognitive processing required in everyday life) and/or veridicality (a test is statistically associated with everyday life functioning). The Interpersonal Perception Task uses real-life social behavior as stimuli and has high verisimilitude. We examined the Interpersonal Perception Task-15 in 72 persons with schizophrenia and 58 healthy controls. The test discriminated well between groups, but failed to show associations with community functioning in participants with schizophrenia, indicating poor veridicality. This study shows that the 2 approaches to ecological validity can dissociate. Hence, it is important for investigators to conduct psychometric investigations when borrowing measures from social psychology for schizophrenia research.

Temporal Patterns of Accuracy Confidence in Social Judgments: A New Method and Initial Results

An integrated, computer-based system was developed to record participants’ continuous judgment changes on a revised form of the Interpersonal Perception Task (IPT-15). Consistent with the considerable research on “thin slice” judgments, the mean latency for greater than chance accuracy confidence was just 16 s (median = 10 s) for the ten one-part scenes on the IPT. There was also a clear and strong linear trend for increasing accuracy confidence across the first 25 s of the ten one-part scenes. For the five-two-part scenes, where comparative judgments were required (e.g., which statement is truthful, which is a lie?), no clear pattern of increasing accuracy confidence was found, with mean scores hovering near chance. The utility of the new system for analyzing the time course of social judgments is discussed and the potential reasons for the contrasting results for the one-part and two-part scenes were examined.