Psychometric properties of Virtual Environment for Social Information Processing, a social information processing simulation assessment for children

Abstract

Virtual Environment for Social Information Processing

Zoti's Social Toolkit: Developing and piloting novel animated tasks to assess emotional understanding and conflict resolution skills in childhood

“…For example, the emotion inference task could be used in combination with tasks of emotion recognition from facial expressions and from vocal cues, to give a more complete insight into children's emotion perception abilities (Dalrymple et al., 2013; Sauter et al., 2013). Recent research calls for more assessment tools that directly assess specific social information processing dimensions in children, rather than rely on teacher rating scales, which are unable to give an accurate insight into children's lines of thinking during social situations (Russo‐Ponsaran et al., 2021). Therefore, despite the small stimulus set and the requirement for further reliability and validity testing on larger populations, this toolkit still fills a crucial gap in the existing range of direct‐assessment research tools available.…”

Examining the Process and Impact of Social Problem Solving in Autistic Children

“…Though SPS components are often presented from problem identification to solution preference, the SPS process does not necessarily unfold in a fixed or linear sequence and often occurs out of conscious awareness (McKown et al, 2009). While theoretical models support the breakdown of SPS in this manner and prior research has demonstrated good internal consistency for measures of these SPS components independently (e.g., Maydeu-Olivares & D'Zurilla, 1996;McKown, 2019;McKown et al, 2013;McKown et al, 2016;Russo-Ponsaran et al, 2021), there is scarce research examining each SPS component conjointly within the same subjects. Specifically, little is known about whether SPS components are wholly discrete, represent largely shared variance (i.e., a general SPS cognitive function), or overlapping yet non-redundant constructs with adequate divergent and predictive validity (Russo- Ponsaran et al, 2021).…”

“…However, little is known about how the discrete components of SPS relate to social difficulties in autism, such as observed and task-measured social skills as well as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) symptomatology, in autistic children. Further, SPS components are intercorrelated; thus, efforts to examine their While autistic individuals 1 are known to experience challenges in terms of social functioning (e.g., social behavior, relationship to autism-related symptoms and social difficulties must prioritize disentangling their unique (i.e., each component) and common (i.e., general SPS ability) contribution to such relationships (McKown, 2019;McKown et al, 2013;Russo-Ponsaran et al, 2021). An investigation that accounts for both unique and common factors in specifying the impact of SPS on autism-related symptoms and social difficulties is needed to better refine formulations and assessment of SPS in this population.…”

Web‐based assessment of social and emotional competence in the late elementary grades

“…Existing direct assessments engender strengths and limitations. Some assess specific competencies, including the extent to which children can understand others' feelings (Denham, 1986;Innovation Research & Training, Inc, 2008;Korkman et al, 2007;Nowicki & Duke, 1994;Pons et al, 2004), can infer others' perspectives (Korkman et al, 2007), can solve social problems (SIP-AP; Kupersmidt et al, 2011;VESIP;Russo-Ponsaran et al, 2021), or engage in selfcontrol (Bitsakou et al, 2006;Duckworth & Kern, 2011;Kuntsi et al, 2001;Willoughby et al, 2011). Each of these existing assessments has merits.…”

“…Accordingly, we designed a SPT subtest to assess children's ability to infer others’ intentions and perspectives. This subtest draws on the literature on children's theory of mind (Devine & Hughes, 2013; Happé, 1994) and SPT (Selman, 1980), which suggest that by the late elementary grades, children can infer what others think, including others’ thoughts about the thoughts of a third party. To assess SPT, we designed a subtest in which children are presented with stories and asked questions about characters’ words, actions, and intentions in each story.…”