PONE-D-19-21938

Using an Ideal Observer analysis to investigate the visual perceptual efficiency of individuals with a history of NSSI when identifying emotional expressions

PLOS ONE

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As noted below by the reviewer, the manuscript was very well written and addressed an important topic for the field. There are a few minor analyses that could be conducted to clarify the findings presented in the paper. In addition to those presented by the reviewer below, I would like to see whether there were any statistically significant group differences between the HNSSI and Control groups on demographic characteristics. Additional reviewer suggestions for further revision can be found at the end of this message.

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PLOS ONE

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This work was supported by funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/193.html) to LZ under Grant 201310GAD; and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/index_eng.asp) to CC under Grant 2015-05067. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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Comments to the Author

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Reviewer #1: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

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Reviewer #1: Thank you for the opportunity to review this well-written and fascinating manuscript, in which the authors make a substantial contribution to the literature on emotion processing in NSSI. In their investigation, the authors found no differences between college students with and without NSSI history in the threshold nor efficiency of emotion recognition, although they observed differences in accuracy of detecting negative emotional expressions. Specifically, the group with NSSI history more frequently mis-classified angry and sad faces as depicting joy and surprise, respectively.

The paper is very clear throughout, and I appreciate the simplicity with which the authors were able to convey important information about Ideal Observer analyses. Their analytic plan was thorough and I applaud the rigor of their study design. Overall this is a strong work that I recommend for publication in PLOS ONE; I have a few minor suggestions for exploratory analyses that the authors may consider:

I agree with the authors’ decision to exclude participants based on BPD diagnoses. I am curious to know whether the authors examined linear relations with BPD traits or NSSI history (and the dependent variables of interest)? For example, do individuals with more "severe" NSSI histories, based on frequency or recency, demonstrate emotion recognition threshold or efficiency differences? Our recent work found hypothesized effects in an emotional inhibition task (specifically, a “directed forgetting” paradigm) only among a subgroup of participants with NSSI history who also reported elevated BPD traits (see Best, Allen, & Hooley, 2019). I therefore wonder if a comparable BPD effect may be operating in these data.

I also wish to know whether the authors tried any additional transformations (e.g., log) to improve data normality in the emotion recognition accuracy analyses (besides the arcsine transform)?

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Kenneth J.D. Allen, Ph.D.

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Using an Ideal Observer analysis to investigate the visual perceptual efficiency of individuals with a history of NSSI when identifying emotional expressions

PONE-D-19-21938R1

Dear Dr. Ziebell,

We are pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it complies with all outstanding technical requirements.

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With kind regards,

Sarah A. Arias, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE