Summary
Objectives
Aberrant salience is the unusual or incorrect assignment of significance or importance to otherwise innocuous stimuli and is thought to have a crucial role in the onset of psychosis. Aberrant salience inventory (ASI) is the only self-reported questionnaire for the assessment of aberrant salience. Accordingly, the main aim of the present paper was to validate the Italian Version of the ASI.
Methods
The Italian Version of the ASI was administered to a group of 112 subjects (48 psychiatric outpatients and 64 subjects from the general population). Comparisons between patients and controls at two different times (baseline and after 15 days) were made. The relationship between ASI and the presence of psychotic symptoms, internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the Italian version of the ASI were analysed.
Results
Patients reported a higher ASI total score than controls (p < 0.001), while the difference in ASI total score between baseline and after 15 days was not significant. Patients with psychotic symptoms showed higher ASI total score than patients without them (p < 0.001). The Italian Version of the ASI showed high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.89) and good test-retest reliability (r = 0.96, p < 0.001).
Conclusions
The Italian Version of the ASI was shown to be a valid and reliable instrument with good psychometric properties. Its usefulness in investigating aberrant salience and psychosis proneness was confirmed.