title: Development of a novel task for investigating decision making in a social context following traumatic brain injury.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Examination of social cognition as a target for assessment and intervention is beginning to gain momentum in a number of illnesses and acquired disorders. One facet of social cognition is decision making within interpersonal situations. This skill forms an important part of our everyday lives and is commonly impaired in those with neurological and mental health conditions. A novel task was developed to allow the assessment of decision making specifically within a social context and was examined within a group known to experience this difficulty.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) were compared to healthy control participants on the Social Decision Making Task (SDMT), which required the participant to learn who the "friendly" players were in a game of toss. Participants also completed a nonsocial decision-making task, the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) as well as a battery of neuropsychological tests and social cognition tasks. Current social functioning was also examined.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Consistent with predictions, the TBI group made poorer decisions on the SDMT than the control group; however, group differences were not evident on the IGT. No significant relationships were observed between the SDMT and either measures of executive functioning (including working memory and reversal learning) or social cognition (including emotion recognition and theory of mind). Performance on the SDMT and the IGT were not associated, suggesting that the two tasks measure different constructs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The SDMT offers a novel way of examining decision making within a social context following TBI and may also be useful in other populations known to have specific social cognition impairment. Future research should aim to provide further clarification of the mechanisms of action and neuroanatomical correlates of poor performance on this task.
authors.affiliation: a School of Psychology, University of New South Wales , Sydney , Australia.
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kelly
authors.forename: Skye
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: McDonald
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kellett
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D000368:Aged; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005717:Games, Experimental; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012919:Social Behavior; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Iowa Gambling Task; Neuropsychological assessment; Social Decision Making Task; Social cognition; Traumatic brain injury