Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T05:50:34.887Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Assessing Social Cognition and Pragmatic Language in Adolescents with Traumatic Brain Injuries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2013

Skye McDonald ,
Therese English ,
Rebekah Randall ,
Thea Longman ,
Leanne Togher  and
Robyn L. Tate
Skye McDonald*
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Australia
Therese English
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Australia
Rebekah Randall
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Australia
Thea Longman
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Australia
Leanne Togher
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Australia
Robyn L. Tate
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Australia
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to: Skye McDonald, School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) in children and adolescents can impair social cognition and communication skills but there are few assessment tools suitable for adolescents. The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT) uses professionally enacted audiovisual vignettes of everyday conversational exchanges and is a valid measure of social perception disorders in adults. This study examined its utility for assessing impairments in social cognition in a group of 16 adolescents with TBI, compared to a group of 16 typically developing (TD) adolescents. Adolescents with TBI were, on average, no different to their TD peers on TASIT 1 (emotion recognition) and TASIT 3 (recognizing lies and sarcasm when provided with additional cues) but performed more poorly on TASIT 2 which required them to interpret sarcastic and sincere conversational exchanges with few cues other than the demeanor of the speakers. Within the TBI group, poor performance on TASIT correlated to both relative and self-reported communication difficulties at home. It also correlated with IQ, face recognition and severity of injury as indexed by duration of post-traumatic amnesia. Overall, this study suggests TASIT is a valid measure for adolescents although it raised questions as to how effective normative data is for comparing performance in social cognition during childhood and adolescence. (JINS, 2013, 19, 1–11)

Keywords

EmotionTheory of mindPragmaticsSarcasmBrain injuryAdolescence
Type
Special Series
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 19 , Issue 5 , May 2013 , pp. 528 - 538
Copyright
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adolphs, R. (2009). The social brain: Neural basis of social knowledge. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 693–716.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Asher, S.R., Hymel, S. (1986). Coaching in social skills for children who lack friends in school. Social Work in Education, 8(4), 205–218.Google Scholar
Baron-Cohen, S., O'Riordan, M., Stone, V., Jones, R., Plaisted, K. (1999). Recognition of faux pas by normally developing children and children with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 29(5), 407–418.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baron-Cohen, S., Wheelright, S., Hill, J., Raste, Y., Plumb, I. (2001). The “Reading the Mind in the Eyes” Test revised version: A study with normal adults and adults with Aspergers Syndrome or high functioning autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 42, 241–251.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beauchamp, M., Anderson, V. (2010). SOCIAL: An integrative framework for the development of social skills. Psychological Bulletin, 136, 39–64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berndt, D.J., Schwartz, S., Kaiser, C.F. (1983). Readability of self-reported depression inventories. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 51, 627–628.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bigler, E.D. (2007). Anterior and middle cranial fossa in traumatic brain injury: Relevant neuroanatomy and neuropathology in the study of neuropsychological outcome. Neuropsychology, 21(5), 515–531.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blake, M.L. (2009). Inferencing processes after right hemisphere brain damage: Maintenance of inferences. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 52, 359–372.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brookshire, B.L., Chapman, S.B., Song, J., Levin, H.S. (2000). Cognitive and linguistic correlates of children's discourse after closed head injury: A three-year follow-up. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 6(7), 741–751.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Channon, S., Pellijeff, A., Rule, A. (2005). Social cognition after head injury: Sarcasm and theory of mind. Brain and Language, 93(2), 123–134.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DeGroot, T., Motowidlo, S.J. (1999). Why visual and vocal interview cues can affect interviewers’ judgments and predict job performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84(6), 986–993.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dennis, M., Barnes, M.A. (1990). Knowing the meaning, getting the point, bridging the gap, and carrying the message: Aspects of discourse following closed head injury in childhood and adolescence. Brain and Language, 39, 428–446.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dennis, M., Barnes, M.A. (2001). Comparison of literal, inferential, and intentional text comprehension in children with mild or severe closed head injury. Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation, 16(5), 456–468.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dennis, M., Barnes, M.A., Wilkinson, M., Humphreys, R.P. (1998). How children with head injury represent real and deceptive emotion in short narratives. Brain and Language, 61(3), 450–483.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dennis, M., Purvis, K., Barnes, M.A., Wilkinson, M., Winner, E. (2001). Understanding of literal truth, ironic criticism, and deceptive praise following childhood head injury. Brain and Language, 78(1), 1–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Faul, M., Xu, L., Wald, M.M., Coronado, V.G. (2010). Traumatic brain injury in the United States: Emergency department visits, hospitalizations and deaths 2002–2006. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fournier, N.M., Calverley, K.L., Wagner, J.P., Poock, J.L., Crossley, M. (2008). Impaired social cognition 30 years after hemispherectomy for intractable epilepsy: The importance of the right hemisphere in complex social functioning. Epilepsy & Behavior, 12, 460–471.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gamino, J., Chapman, S.B., Cook, L.G. (2009). Strategic learning in youth with traumatic brain injury: Evidence for stall in higher-order cognition. Topics in Language Disorders, 29(3), 224–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giza, C.C., Mink, R.B., Madikians, A. (2007). Pediatric traumatic brain injury: Not just little adults. Current Opinion in Critical Care, 13(2), 143–152.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Happe, F.G.E. (1994). An advanced test of theory of mind: Understanding of story characters’ thoughts and feelings by able autistic, mentally handicapped, and normal children and adults. Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders, 24(2), 129–154.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heilman, K.M., Safran, A., Geschwind, N. (1971). Closed head trauma and aphasia. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 34, 265–269.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kern, R.S., Green, M.F., Fiske, A.P., Kee, K.S., Lee, L., Sergi, M.J., Nuechterlein, K.H. (2009). Theory of mind deficits for processing counterfactual information in persons with chronic schizophrenia. Psychological Medicine, 39, 645–654.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kipps, C.M., Nestor, P.J., Acosta-Cabronero, J., Arnold, R., Hodges, J.R. (2009). Understanding social dysfunction in the behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia: the role of emotion and sarcasm processing. Brain, 132, 592–603.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kolb, B., Wilson, B., Taylor, L. (1992). Developmental changes in the recognition and comprehension of facial expression: Implications for frontal lobe function. Brain and Cognition, 20, 74–84.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kosmidis, M.H., Aretouli, E., Bozikas, V.P., Giannakou, M., Ioannidis, P. (2008). Studying social cognition in patients with schizophrenia and patients with frontotemporal dementia: Theory of mind and the perception of sarcasm. Behavioural Neurology, 19(1–2), 65–69.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kovacs, M. (1992). Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) manual. North Tonawanda, NY: Multi-Health Systems.Google Scholar
Levin, H.S., Hamsher, K.d.S., Benton, A.L. (1975). A short form of the Test of Facial Recognition for Clinical Use. The Journal of Psychology, 91, 223–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lovibond, S.H., Lovibond, P.F. (1995). Manual for the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (2nd ed.). Sydney, Australia: Psychology Foundation of Australia, Inc.Google Scholar
McCauley, S.R., Wilde, E.A., Anderson, V.A., Bedell, G., Beers, S.R., Campbell, T.F., Yeates, K.O. (2012). Recommendations for the use of common outcome measures in pediatric traumatic brain injury research. Journal of Neurotrauma, 29(1), 678–705.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McDonald, S., Flanagan, S. (2004). Social perception deficits after traumatic brain injury: Interaction Between emotion recognition, mentalizing ability, and social communication. Neuropsychology, 18(3), 572–579.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McDonald, S., Flanagan, S., Martin, I., Saunders, C. (2004). The ecological validity of TASIT: A test of social perception. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 14, 285–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDonald, S., Flanagan, S., Rollins, J. (2011). The awareness of social inference test (revised). Sydney, Australia: Pearson Assessment.Google Scholar
McDonald, S., Flanagan, S., Rollins, J., Kinch, J. (2003). TASIT: A new clinical tool for assessing social perception after traumatic brain injury. Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation, 18, 219–238.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Morse, S., Haritou, F., Ong, K., Anderson, V., Catroppa, C., Rosenfeld, J. (1999). Early effects of traumatic brain injury on young children's language performance: A preliminary linguistic analysis. Pediatric Rehabilitation, 3(4), 139–148.Google Scholar
Perner, J., Wimmer, H. (1985). “John thinks that Mary thinks that …”: Attribution of second-order beliefs by 5- to 10-year-old children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 39(3), 437–471.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Place, K.S., Becker, J.A. (1991). The influence of pragmatic competence on the likability of grade-school children. Discourse Processes, 14, 227–241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rankin, K.P., Salazara, A., Gorno-Tempinia, M.L., Sollbergera, M., Wilson, S.M., Pavlica, D., Miller, B.L. (2009). Detecting sarcasm from paralinguistic cues: Anatomic and cognitive correlates in neurodegenerative disease. Neuroimage, 47, 2005–2015.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reynolds, C.R., Richmond, B.O. (1978). What I think and feel: A revised measure of children's manifest anxiety. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 6, 271–280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shamay-Tsoory, S., Tomer, R., Aharon-Peretz, J. (2005). The neuroanatomical basis of understanding sarcasm and its relationship to social cognition. Neuropsychology, 19, 288–300.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sparks, A., McDonald, S., Lino, B., O'Donnell, M., Green, M.J. (2010). Social cognition, empathy and functional outcome in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research, 122, 172–178.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Struchen, M.A., Clark, A.N., Sander, A.M., Mills, M.R., Evans, G., Kurtz, D. (2008). Relation of executive functioning and social communication measures to functional outcomes following traumatic brain injury. NeuroRehabilitation, 23(2), 185–198.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tlustos, S.J., Chiu, C., Walz, N.C., Taylor, H., Yeates, K.O., Wade, S.L. (2011). Emotion labeling and socio-emotional outcomes 18 months after early childhood traumatic brain injury. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 17(6), 1132–1142.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tonks, J., Williams, H.W., Frampton, I., Yates, P., Slater, A. (2007a). Assessing emotion recognition in 9–15-years olds: Preliminary analysis of abilities in reading emotion from faces, voices and eyes. Brain Injury, 21(6), 623–629.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tonks, J., Williams, W.H., Frampton, I., Yates, P., Slater, A. (2007b). Reading emotions after child brain injury: A comparison between children with brain injury and non-injured controls. Brain Injury, 21(7), 731–739.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Towne, R.L., Entwisle, L.M. (1993). Metaphoric comprehension in adolescents with traumatic brain injury and in adolescents with language learning disability. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools, 24, 100–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turkstra, L.S. (2000). Should my shirt be tucked in or left out? The communication context of adolescence. Aphasiology, 14(4), 349–364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turkstra, L.S. (2008). Conversation-based assessment of social cognition in adults with traumatic brain injury. Brain Injury, 22(5), 397–409.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Turkstra, L.S., Dixon, T.M., Baker, K.K. (2004). Theory of Mind and social beliefs in adolescents with traumatic brain injury. NeuroRehabilitation, 19(3), 245–256.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Turkstra, L.S., McDonald, S., DePompei, R. (2001). Social information processing in adolescents: Data from normally developing adolescents and preliminary data from their peers with traumatic brain injury. Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation, 16(5), 469–483.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Turkstra, L.S., McDonald, S., Kaufmann, P.M. (1996). Assessment of pragmatic communication skills in adolescents after traumatic brain injury. Brain Injury, 10(5), 329–345.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Turkstra, L.S., Williams, W., Tonks, J., Frampton, I. (2008). Measuring social cognition in adolescents: Implications for students with TBI returning to school. NeuroRehabilitation, 23(6), 501–509.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vicari, S., Albertoni, A., Chilosi, A.M., Cipriani, P., Cioni, G., Bates, E. (2000). Plasticity and reorganization during language development in children with early brain injury. Cortex, 36(1), 31–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walz, N.C., Yeates, K.O., Taylor, H., Stancin, T., Wade, S.L. (2010). Theory of mind skills 1 year after traumatic brain injury in 6- to 8-year-old children. Journal of Neuropsychology, 4(2), 181–195.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wechsler, D. (1999). Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence – Third Edition. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation.Google Scholar
Williamson, D.J.G., Scott, J.G., Adams, R.L. (1996). Traumatic brain injury. In R.L. Adams, O.A. Parsons, J.L. Culbertson, & S.J. Nixon (Eds.), Neuropsychology for clinical practice: Etiology, assessment, and treatment of common neurological disorders (pp. 9–64). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yeates, K.O., Swift, E., Taylor, H.G., Wade, S.L., Drotar, D., Stancin, T., Minich, N. (2004). Short- and long-term social outcomes following pediatric traumatic brain injury. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 10(3), 412–426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar