The ”Mind in the Eyes test” was originally developed by Baron-Cohen et al. (2001) to measure an 'advanced theory of mind’ in adults, in particular to measure mild deficits in social understanding in normal intelligent adults with autism (HFA) or Asperger Syndrome (AS). In this test, the participant is presented with a series of photographs of the eye-region of the face of different actors and actresses, and is asked to choose which of four words best describes what the person in the photograph is thinking or feeling. Different translated versions of this test are already used in clinical settings. However, psychometric properties and separate norms of these have not been established yet. In a pre-study with a French translation (version Martin Sölch, University of Basel, Switzerland), we found that some items failed to meet Baron-Cohen’s criterion. Subjects’ agreement for the target word that should be the most suitable description for a stimulus was low for some items. French participants performed differently on the test than the English reference group. Their decision was sometimes directly influenced by the recognition of the actors of the eye-region (e.g. “That actor is always a bit arrogant in films”). These findings cast doubt on its validity as well as on its clinical usefulness using the English norms. Therefore, new target words, foils, or both were generated and then re-piloted with successive groups of judges until the criterion was met for all items. The revised version was administered to a group of healthy adults to determine the psychometric properties (test-retest reliability, validity, item validity). Moreover the test was administered in adults with AS or HFA to assess whether it discriminates these from normal controls. Latest results will be presented and the revised test will be made available at the European conference of Neuropsychology in Toulouse.

 

 

Everything about the revised “Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test”: introduction, method, results, conclusion, references.