Validation of a spanish short version of the emoticom battery (vea-emticom) [validación de una versión en español abreviada de la batería emoticom (vea-emoticom)]

Introduction: Most scales used in the assessment of psychiatric disorders focus on the clinical status of the patient. However, it is important to quantitatively measure specific dimensions, such as cognitive, affective or social functioning, and to record their evolution in the clinical or research setting. The EMOTICOM battery includes four domains of affective cognition; processing of emotions; motivation; impulsivity; and social cognition. Here we present psychometric data from an abbreviated Spanish version (VEA-EMOTICOM). Methodology: The sample included two hundred healthy volunteers (31.68 years ± 8.38; 111 men). Forty-two subjects were re-evaluated, to determine test-retest reliability. The VEA-EMOTICOM comprises 9 tasks programmed on a laptop computer to be completed in one hour. The battery was administered in a random sequence and rest periods were allowed. Results: Small floor effects were observed for 3 outcomes and moderate for 1 outcome, as well as small ceiling effects for 3 outcomes and moderate for 1 outcome. Two tasks showed excellent test-retest reliability; four showed good reliability; seven showed moderate reliability; and two showed poor test-retest reliability. The results of most of the tasks were not correlated with age or gender. An underlying four-factor structure could not be confirmed. Conclusions: The VEA-EMOTICOM seems to be a practical and adequate battery to evaluate affective cognition in Spanish-speaking population