Development of the CAT-FER: A Computerized Adaptive Test of Facial Emotion Recognition for Adults With Schizophrenia.

Abstract

IMPORTANCE\nThe most frequently used measures of facial emotion recognition (FER) are insufficiently comprehensive, reliable, valid, and efficient; moreover, the impact of gender on scoring has not been controlled.\n\n\nOBJECTIVE\nTo develop a computerized adaptive test of FER for adults with schizophrenia.\n\n\nDESIGN\nFirst, we selected photographs from a published database. Second, items that fitted well to a Rasch model were used to form the item bank. Third and last, we determined the best administration mode for prospective users to achieve both high reliability and efficiency.\n\n\nSETTING\nPsychiatric hospitals and the community.\n\n\nPARTICIPANTS\nAdults living with schizophrenia (n = 351) and adults without diagnosed mental illness (n = 101).\n\n\nRESULTS\nAfter removal of misfit items (infit or outfit ≥1.4), the remaining 165 items were selected to form an item bank. Among them, 39 showed severe gender bias, so the item difficulties were adjusted accordingly. On the basis of the item bank, two administration modes were recommended for prospective users. The reliable mode required approximately 128 items (nearly 20 min) to achieve reliability (.72-.81), similar to that of the entire item bank. The efficient mode required approximately 73 items (approximate 11 min) to provide acceptable reliability (.69-.73) for the seven domain scores.\n\n\nCONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE\nOur newly developed measure provides comprehensive, valid, and unbiased (to examinees gender) assessments of FER in adults living with schizophrenia. In addition, the administration modes can be flexibly changed to optimize the reliability or efficiency for prospective users.\n\n\nWHAT THIS ARTICLE ADDS\nThis newly developed FER measure can help occupational therapists identify deficits in recognizing specific basic emotions and plan corresponding interventions to manage the impact on their clients social functions.