Measuring
Social Perception
Using the DANVA 2
& the NEPSY-II
DANVA 2
The Diagnostic Analysis of
Nonverbal Accuracy 2
(Copyright Dyssemia, Inc. 1999–2000)
http://www.psychology.emory.edu/clinical/interpersonal/danva.htm
DANVA 2 Description
PURPOSE: To measure a person’s competence in
affect recognition by reading facial expressions
and voice tones.
 Includes 4 subtests:

– (1) Child Faces 2; (2) Adult faces 2
– (3) Child Paralanguage 2; (4) Adult Paralanguage 2

Four basic emotions are included:
– happiness, sadness, anger, fear

Two levels of emotional intensity are included:
– High & Low.

Both males and females are included in all
subtest stimuli.
DANVA 2 - Child Faces 2
Test Construction:
– Includes 24 photographs of child facial
expressions
 Internal Consistency:
– coefficent alpha ranged from .69 to .81 with a
modal alpha of .76 across 10 studies with
children aged 4 – 16.
 Test-Retest Reliability:
– r = .74, n = 84, for 3rd grade children.

DANVA 2 - Child Faces 2

Discriminative Validity:
– DANVA2-CF scores have not been found to be related
to IQ scores or tests of general cognitive ability in a
number of studies.

Criterion-Related Validity:
– Lower accuracy scores were significantly correlated
with lower social competence in elementary students.
– Lower scores in elementary students are associated
with greater external control expectancies, greater
depression in boys, lower self-esteem in girls,
difficulties with teachers, and psychopathy in boys.
DANVA 2 Opening Screen
DANVA 2 Main Menu
DANVA 2 Child Faces Menu
DANVA 2 Child Faces Subtest
• Clients are given 4 seconds to view each photo, which
then disappears. Then, they choose the emotion they think
the picture shows. Once ready, they click the next button.
What is the emotion?
DANVA 2 Child Faces Subtest
What is the emotion?
DANVA 2 Child Faces Subtest
What is the emotion?
DANVA 2 Child Faces Subtest
What is the emotion?
Paralanguage Subtest
“I’m going out of the room now,
but I’ll be back later.”
DANVA 2 Client Results
DANVA 2 Data: Child Faces
Table 1: Total Errors; per Affect;
per Intensity
Table 2: Affect Errors x Intensity
TABLE 3: Affect Errors x
Type of Affect
TABLE 4: Affect Errors x
Affect x Intensity
DANVA 2 Report Print Out
DANVA 2 Norms (Ages 5-18)
CASE Study: Eron

Profile:
– Age 7 – 11
– profile: Processing Speed (79) and Perceptual Reasoning (61)
> Verbal Comprehension (27) and Auditory Working Memory
(21)
– 5 out of 12 atypical indices on the CPT-II
– Possible DSM-IV-TR diagnosis of 314.9 ADHD-NOS
– Referred because of playground aggression, and
difficulty understanding his emotions & those of
others. Noncompliant during counselling efforts.
CASE Study: Eron
DANVA-2 Results
Eron
Norm Group
24
No. of Errors
20
16
15
12
8
11
11.3
11
8.2
8
6
4
0
Adult Faces
Child Faces
Adult
Paralanguage
Child
Paralanguage
CASE Study: Eron
DANVA-2 Results
Percentage of Errors
Adult Faces
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Child Faces
45
27
18
7
0
Happy
Sad
36
33
Angry
33
Fearful
CASE Study: Eron
ADULT FACES:
Emotion
Presented
Incorrect
Interpretation
%
of Errors
Incorrect
Interpretation
%
of Errors
Happy
sad
7
--
--
Sad
angry
27
--
--
Angry
happy
20
sad
13
Fearful
happy
27
angry
7
CASE Study: Eron
CHILD FACES:
Emotion
Presented
Incorrect
Interpretation
%
of Errors
Incorrect
Interpretation
%
of Errors
Incorrect
Interpretatio
n
%
of Errors
Happy
--
--
--
--
--
--
Sad
happy
18
--
--
--
--
Angry
happy
18
fearful
18
--
--
Fearful
happy
18
sad
18
angry
9
NEPSY-II
Social Perception Battery
NEPSY-II Description

This assesses two main areas:
– 1. Affect Recognition:
 discriminating happy, sad, anger, fear, disgust,
and neutral from children’s facial expressions
– 2. Theory of Mind:
 inferring others’ perspectives (e.g., belief,
intention, deception, emotion, imagination,
and pretending), and relating emotions to the
social context
NEPSY-II Social Perception

Reliability:
– Internal Consistency:
 Ages 7-12 = .87 for Affect Recognition; none reported for
Theory of Mind in this age group.
– Test-Retest:
 Ages 7:0-8:11 = .60 for Affect Recognition

Validity:
– Concurrent:
 AR Total with WISC-IV Comprehension = .30
 AR Total with WNV Picture Arrangement = .05
 AR Total with DSMD Conduct Problems = -.45
– Clinical Groups:
 AR Total sig. differentiated Autism from control group (1.19),
but not Asperger’s individuals from control group (.19).
NEPSY-II Affect Recognition
NEPSY-II Theory of Mind
CASE Study: Eron

NEPSY-II Social Perception
– Affect Recognition:
 When trying to discriminate happy, sad, anger, fear,
discussed, and neutral from children’s facial
expressions, he obtained a scaled score of 4, at the 2nd
percentile.
 Interpreted fear as happiness (6th – 10th %ile)
– Theory of Mind:
 When trying to infer others’ perspectives (e.g., belief,
intention, deception, emotion, imagination, and
pretending), and relate emotions to social context, Eron
obtained a score within the Average range (51-75
%ile).
CASE Study: Eron

Recommendations:
1.
2.
3.
Eron should receive individual counselling to improve his
ability to identify facial expressions of various emotions in
children and adults. Start with teaching him to correctly
identify the facial expressions of anger and fear.
A useful tool for teaching affect recognition is a DVD
program called ‘Mind Reading.’ The DVD consists of 3
areas: (1) the Emotions Library, (2) The Learning Center,
and (3) the Games Zone. Using the software, you can
explore up to 412 emotions, seeing and hearing each one
performed by six different people, including children and
adults of both gender.
Adults working with Eron should always verbalize how they
feel, and not communicate through facial expression alone.
He may misperceive adult facial expressions of happy, sad,
and angry.