Social Cognition In Williams Syndrome: Relations Between the Social Attribution Task and Parent-Reported Socio-Communicative Functioning

Background: Williams syndrome (WS) is a developmental disorder of genetic origin (Ewart et al, 1993), with characteristic cognitive and personality profiles (Mervis et al, 2000; Klein-Tasman & Mervis, 2003). Studies of WS point to an outgoing and gregarious personality style, often contrasted with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs); however, recent research has uncovered underlying social reciprocity difficulties in this population (Laing et al, 2002; Lincoln et al, 2007; Klein-Tasman et al, 2007, 2009).

Objectives: The objective of this study was to examine relations between social cognition, as measured by the Social Attribution task, cognitive abilities, and parental ratings of social reciprocity in children and young adolescents with WS.

Methods: All children were administered a measure of intellectual functioning (KBIT-II; Kaufman & Kaufman, 2004) and a lab-based measure of social perception and cognition (Social Attribution Task; (SAT; Klin, 2000). Parents completed measures of socio-communicative functioning (Social Communication Questionnaire, SCQ, Rutter, Bailey, & Lord, 2003; Social Responsiveness Scale, SRS, Constantino & Gruber, 2005). SAT responses were coded according to the original scheme (Klin, 2000). Correlations between performance on various indices of the SAT and scores on the KBIT-II and the parent questionnaires were examined.

Results: Participants included 24 children (12 males, 12 females) with WS ages 8-15 years (M = 149.88 months, SD = 32.51 months). All children were administered the SAT and KBIT-II (M = 66.04, SD = 11.93). 21 caregivers completed the SRS (M total score = 70.24, SD = 11.17) and 20 completed the SCQ (7 [35%] met or exceed cutoff). Significant correlations were found between the Salience index and SRS Social Cognition (SCog) (r(19)=-.615, p<.01), Social Communication (SComm) r(19)=-.604, p<.01), Social Motivation (SMto) r(19)=-.443, p<.05), Autistic Mannerisms (AM) r(19)=-.552, p<.01), and Total scores (r(19)=-.623, p<.01) as well as the total score on the SCQ (r(18)=-.458, p<.05). Significant correlations were found between the Problem Solving index and the KBIT IQ Composite (r(21)=.418, p<.05), SRS Social Awareness (SAware) (r(19)=-.601, p<.01), SCog (r(19)=-.521, p<.05), SComm (r(19)=-.637, p<.01), AM (r(19)=-.635, p<.01), and Total scores (r(19)=-.673, p<.01) as well as the total score on the SCQ (r(18)=-.675, p<.01). Significant correlations were found between the Improvement index and the KBIT-II nonverbal and IQ composite scores (r(21)=.514, p<.01 and r(21)=.490, p<.05, respectively), SRS SComm and total scores (r(19)=-.452, p<.05 and r(19)=-.449, p<.05, respectively), as well as the SCQ total score (r(18)=-.513, p<.05). The majority of these relationships remained significant even when IQ was taken into account. 

Conclusions: Consistent relations were found between performance on the lab-based measure of social cognition and parent-reported social communication and reciprocity skills, indicating that the SAT is indeed tapping into real-world social perception and cognition. The relationship between the Improvement index and overall IQ supports the hypothesis that children with more delays especially benefit from additional structure to support their interpretation of the stimuli.