Mentalizing in a Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition (MASC) : The Validation in a Taiwanese Sample

Abstract

Abstract The present study aimed to evaluate the psychometrics properties of a sensitive video-based test for the evaluation of mentalizing: The Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition - Taiwanese version (MASC-TW). We recruited two independent samples of nonclinical participants (N = 167) and adult patients with schizophrenia (N = 41). The MASC-TW and two other social cognition measures, including the Chinese version of Theory of Mind task (ToM) and the Taiwanese version of the Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy-2 (DANAV-TW-2), and an executive function measure of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), were administered to both groups. The MASC proved to be a reliable measure of mentalizing capacity, with Cronbach’s α values was .87. The intraclass correlation coefficient of the MASC-TW total correct scores was .85 across three waves of administration. In whole sample, the MASC scores correlated significantly with the verbal and nonverbal scores of the ToM task and facial and prosodic emotion recognition of DANAV-TW-2. And a causal linkage from executive function to cognitive and affective mentalizing via emotional recognition was found. Finally, in schizophrenia patients, a Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis identified the MASC as discriminating the diagnostic groups most accurately, highlighting the validity of the MASC. As a whole, The MASC-TW is an ecologically valid and useful tool for assessing mentalizing in a Taiwanese population.