The "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" Test revised version: a study with normal adults, and adults with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism

J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2001 Feb;42(2):241-51.

Abstract

In 1997 in this Journal we published the "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" Test, as a measure of adult "mentalising". Whilst that test succeeded in discriminating a group of adults with Asperger syndrome (AS) or high-functioning autism (HFA) from controls, it suffered from several psychometric problems. In this paper these limitations are rectified by revising the test. The Revised Eyes Test was administered to a group of adults with AS or HFA (N = 15) and again discriminated these from a large number of normal controls (N = 239) drawn from different samples. In both the clinical and control groups the Eyes Test was inversely correlated with the Autism Spectrum Quotient (the AQ), a measure of autistic traits in adults of normal intelligence. The Revised Eyes Test has improved power to detect subtle individual differences in social sensitivity.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Validation Study

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Asperger Syndrome / diagnosis*
  • Asperger Syndrome / psychology
  • Autistic Disorder / diagnosis*
  • Autistic Disorder / psychology
  • Cognition Disorders / diagnosis*
  • Emotions
  • Eye
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Perception
  • Psychometrics
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Social Behavior