DataSheet1_Initial Validation for the Assessment of Pragmatic Abilities and Cognitive Substrates (APACS) Hebrew Battery in Adolescents and Young Adults With Typical Development.docx

Currently there is no validated battery to assess pragmatic abilities in Hebrew. The use of such battery has great importance, as it may provide norms to the assessment of impaired pragmatic skills across several populations, such as ASD, schizophrenia, specific learning disorders and intellectual disabilities. In order to validate the battery, the Assessment of Pragmatic Abilities and Cognitive Substrates (APACS) was translated to Hebrew. The APACS battery was previously validated and found high reliability and validity for ages 19–89 years. The battery includes six tasks, focusing on two main domains: pragmatic production and pragmatic comprehension. The assessment of pragmatic production will be conducted by the use of interview and description tasks, whereas pragmatic comprehension will be assessed by narratives, two figurative language, and humor tasks. The translated battery, APACS-Heb is currently the most comprehensive and the first validated battery for pragmatic tests in Hebrew. Forty Hebrew-speaking adolescents ages 16–20 participated in the study. All participants performed screening tests assessing vocabulary, Theory of Mind and social responsiveness. In addition, the validity and test-retest reliability of APACS-Heb were assessed. Furthermore, the effect of vocabulary, Theory of Mind and social responsiveness on performance was evaluated. High internal consistency, content validity and test-retest reliability was found for most APACS-Heb tasks and all composite scores. Furthermore, an effect of age and gender was found for most tasks with females outperformed males. In addition, a contribution of Theory of Mind to pragmatic production, pragmatic comprehension and APACS total scores was found. Lastly, a factor analysis revealed two factors, in which the first factor correlates with most tasks, and the second factor correlates only to humor. The results thus suggest that humor is a separate skill among the other pragmatic skills. In conclusion, normative data was collected for the APACS-Heb battery, and it was found that it is a valid and reliable measure of pragmatic skills. Since APACS is a comprehensive battery assessing the various aspects of figurative language, it can identify the specific deficits in figurative language and therefore may pinpoint the appropriate intervention program for each individual.

目前尚无经过效度验证的希伯来语语用能力评估成套测验。此类成套测验的应用具有重要价值，可为孤独症谱系障碍（ASD）、精神分裂症、特定学习障碍及智力障碍等多类人群的语用技能损伤评估提供常模依据。
为完成该成套测验的效度验证工作，研究团队将《语用能力与认知基础评估量表》（Assessment of Pragmatic Abilities and Cognitive Substrates, APACS）翻译成希伯来语版本。APACS成套测验此前已完成效度验证，在19至89岁的年龄段内表现出优异的信度与效度。
该测验包含六项任务，聚焦两大核心领域：语用产出与语用理解。其中，语用产出评估采用访谈与描述任务范式，语用理解则通过叙事任务、两项比喻性语言任务及幽默任务完成。
经翻译后的APACS-希伯来语版（APACS-Heb）是目前首款经过效度验证的希伯来语语用能力综合评估成套测验，亦是同类工具中覆盖最为全面的一款。
本研究招募了40名16至20岁的希伯来语使用者作为被试。所有被试均完成了词汇水平、心理理论（Theory of Mind）及社交反应性筛查测验。
此外，研究团队评估了APACS-Heb的效度与重测信度，并分析了词汇水平、心理理论及社交反应性对测验表现的影响。
结果显示，APACS-Heb的绝大多数任务及所有组合得分均表现出较高的内部一致性、内容效度与重测信度。此外，多数任务存在年龄与性别效应，女性被试的表现显著优于男性。同时，心理理论对语用产出、语用理解及APACS总分均存在显著预测作用。
最后，因素分析提取出两个因子：第一因子与绝大多数任务相关，第二因子仅与幽默任务相关，这表明幽默能力是区别于其他语用技能的独立维度。
综上，本研究为APACS-Heb成套测验收集了常模数据，证实其是一款可靠且有效的语用技能评估工具。由于APACS能够全面评估比喻性语言的各个维度，因此可精准识别个体在比喻性语言方面的具体缺陷，进而为每位被试制定针对性的干预方案提供依据。