1. The “Reading the Mind in the Eyes” Test Revised version:
A Study with Normal Adults, and Adults with Asperger Syndrome or High-functioning Autism
The “Reading the Mind in the Eyes” Test Revised version:
Baron-Cohen (2001)

2. Autistic spectrum
The autism spectrum or autistic spectrum describes a range of conditions classified as pervasive developmental disorders (DSM-IV)
It includes:
Autism
Asperger Syndrome
Pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified
Childhood desintegrative disorder
Rett syndrome
The first three are part of the autistic spectrum
Main features: social deficits, communication difficulties, stereotyped or repetitive behaviours and interests, and in some cases, cognitive delays.

3. Autistic disorder: DSM-IV
A. A total of six (or more) items from (1), (2), and (3), with at least two from (1), and one each from (2) and (3):
qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of the following:
(a) Marked impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors, such as eye-to- eye gaze, facial expression, body postures, and gestures to regulate social interaction
(b) Failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level
(c) A lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people (e.g., by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest)
(d) lack of social or emotional reciprocity

4. Autistic disorder: DSM-IV
(2) Qualitative impairments in communication, as manifested by at least one of the following:
Delay in, or total lack of, the development of spoken language (not accompanied by an attempt to compensate through alternative modes of communication such as gesture or mime)
(b) in individuals with adequate speech, marked impairment in the ability to initiate or sustain a conversation with others
(c) Stereotyped and repetitive use of language or idiosyncratic language
(d) Lack of varied, spontaneous make-believe play or social imitative play appropriate to developmental level

5. Autistic disorder: DSM-IV
(3) Restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities as manifested by at least one of the following DSM –IV Criteria for Autism:
(a) Encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus
(b) Apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals
(c) Stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g., hand or finger flapping or twisting or complex whole-body movements)
(d) Persistent preoccupation with parts of objects
B. Delays or abnormal functioning in at least one of the following areas, with onset prior to age 3 years:
(1) social interaction,
(2) language as used in social communication, or
(3) symbolic or imaginative play.
C. The disturbance is not better accounted for by Rett’s disorder or childhood disintegrative disorder.

6. Asperger’s Disorder
A. Qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of the following:
marked impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors, such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body postures, and gestures to regulate social interaction
(2) Failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level
(3) A lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people (e.g., by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest to other people)
(4) Lack of social or emotional reciprocity
B. Restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities, as manifested by at least one of the following:
(1) Encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus
(2) Apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals
(3) Stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g., hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole-body movements)
(4) persistent preoccupation with parts of objects

7. Asperger’s disorder
C. The disturbance causes clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. D. There is no clinically significant general delay in language (e.g., single words used by age 2 years, communicative phrases used by age 3 years). E. There is no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or in the development of age-appropriate self-help skills, adaptive behavior (other than in social interaction), and curiosity about the environment in childhood. F. Criteria are not met for another specific pervasive developmental disorder or schizophrenia

8. Background and context
There are few tests that can test if an adult with normal intelligence has a mild deficit in social understanding.
Tests usually don’t detect subtle dysfunction, so it may diagnose as normal, someone who isn’t in this aspect.
This study considered the “Reading the mind in the Eyes” Test.
It tests how well the participant can put himself in the mind of the other person and tune in to their mental state
Theory of mind: ability to attribute mental states to oneself or another person social intelligence

9. Background and context
The subject needs to have a mental state lexicon and know the semantics of these terms
They must match the concept with the photograph. It involves attribution of a mental state
Results showed that women had a slightly higher score
Adults with Asperger Syndrome and High functioning autism performed significantly worse.
This showed that the ability to read the mind in the eyes was testable.

10. Problems with the original version of the test
1. The first version involved a forced choice only between 2 options too narrow
2. The test was too narrow in range of scores lead to confusion
3. There could be scores near to the “ceiling” this avoids from detecting individual differences
MODIFICATIONS:
1. Increase the number of items in the test
2. Increase the number of response options in each trial
This experiment included these modifications

11. Modifications
4. The test only included complex mental states, because simple ones enabled ceiling effects
5. In the first version, you could guess the emotion looking at the gaze- direction. So this was corrected.
6. The original version had more female faces. This was also modified.
7. In the original version the emotions were exposed as pairs of opposites, making it easier. This was changed.
8. A glossary of terms was included, in order to eliminate the confounding variable of comprehension of the words. (in case of autistic patients with language delay)

12. The study has additional aims
1. To test a group of adults with AS or HFA on the revised version of the test
To test if in a sample of normal adults, an inverse correlation would be found between performance on the Eyes test (revised) and the autism spectrum quotient (AQ)
AQ: self report questionnaire that measures the degree to which any individual (adult) or normal IQ possesses traits related to the autistic spectrum

13. METHOD 4 groups of subjects tested
GROUP 1: male Adults with AS or HFA
Adverts in the UK, National Autistic Society Magazine or support groups.
All diagnosed in specialized centres using established criteria
Equivalent span of socieconomic classes and educational levels as seen in group 2
WAIS normal scores

14. METHOD
GROUP 2: Normal adults from adult community and education classes Exeter or public library Cambridge
Broad mix of daytime occupations
Broad mix of educational levels
GROUP 3: Normal adult students all studying for unfergraduate degrees in Cambridge University
Entries to university imply 3 good marks in AS represent high IQ population
GROUP 4: - Comprised 14 randomly selected individuals in the general population

15. PROCEDURE
Subjects in all four groups were tested on the revised adult Eyes Test.
Individually administered in a quiet room in Cambridge or Exeter
The group of AS and HFA were also asked to indicate the gender of the person in the photo
Subjects in group 1,3 and 4 completed the AQ.
In the begginning they were asked to read through the glossary and indicate any word meaning they were unsure of.

16. Eyes Test Development
Target words and foils were generated by the first two authors and were then puiloted on groups of 8 judges
They needed to approve the words and foils available.
The data from groups 2 and 3 did not differ from each other, so the results were combined creating a sample of N=225

17. Predictions
1. The AS/HFA group would score significantly lower on the mental state judgement on the Eyes Test, but be unimpaired on the gender control judgements.
2. The AS/HFA group would score significantly higher in the AQ
3. Females in the “normal” groups (2 and 3) would score higher than males on the Eyes Test
4. Males ion the “normal” group (3) would score higher than the females in the AQ
5. Scores on the AQ and the Eyes Test would be inversely correlated

18. RESULTS
Subjects in the 4 groups did not differ in the number of words in the glossary that they were unsure of
In all subjects, the number of words checked never exceeded two.
Group 1 performed significantly worse than the other 3 groups, who didn’t differ from each other
Females scored higher than males
On the AQ, as expected, Group 1 scored significantly higher than groups 3 and 4
Finally: the correlation between AQ score, IQ score and Eyes Test score was computed.
No correlation between the Eyes test and the IQ
No correlation between AQ and IQ
Student group: Eyes Test inversely correlated to social skills category and communication category

19. DISCUSSION
This study reports normative data on the Revised Eyes Test for Adults
Modification were designed to make this test a more sensitive measure of adult social Intelligence
As hoped, modifications from original version lead to normal performance being significantly below ceiling.
This is important to discriminate extremes and detect meaningful individual differences

20. DISCUSSION
This study replicated earlier findings that AS or HFA patients are impaired significantly on such tests, but not on gender recognition.
This validates the test as a useful one to validate subtle impaiments in social intelligence in otherwise normally inteligent adults.
This test distinguishes between very high- functioning adults with AS and HFA with controls.
The revised eyes test may be relevant to clinical groups beyond those on the autistic spectrum (ie. brain damage)

21. DISCUSSION
There has been recently developed a child version of the test
No significant correlation between IQ and the Eyes Test independant of non-social intelligence.
Performance in Eyes test inversely proportional to performance in AQ.

22. DISCUSSION
Criticism for the Revised Eyes Test might be that, even with the new modifications, stimuli are static, and the real world isn’t.
Static stimuli make it easy and quick, but isn’t that representative