Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test - Revised

Technical Manual

Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Created: January 26, 2017

Last Modified: January 03, 2025 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC

Background

This script implements a computerized version of the revised Eyes Test; a test of social sensitivity. The script is based on:

Baron-Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S., Hill, J., Raste, Y., & Plumb, I. (2001). The 'Reading the Mind in the Eyes' Test Revised Version: A Study with Normal Adults, and Adults with Asperger Syndrome or High-functioning Autism. Journal of Child Psychiatry and Psychiatry, 42, 241-252

Materials are downloadable from the following link: https://www.autismresearchcentre.com/arc_tests/

Duration

7 minutes

Description

Participants are given 36 photographs of people's eyes and four word descriptions that describe the possible mental state of the person in question. Participants are asked to select the option that they think best describes the mental state of the person. There is no time limit to this test and participants can look up the descriptions of the words anytime they need to.

Procedure

(1) Practice: 1 image
(2) Test: Part1: 17 images
(3) Test: Part2: 19 images

Trial: an image is presented with 4 surrounding words, guessing probability = 0.25
Chance Performance = 36*0.25 = 9 items

images are presented in a fixed sequence

Stimuli

provided by Millisecond - can be edited under section Editable Stimuli

Instructions

provided by Millisecond - can be edited under section Editable Instructions

Summary Data

File Name: eyestest_summary*.iqdat

Data Fields

NameDescription
inquisit.version Inquisit version number
computer.platform Device platform: win | mac |ios | android
startDate Date the session was run
startTime Time the session was run
subjectId Participant ID
groupId Group number
sessionId Session number
elapsedTime Session duration in ms
completed 0 = Test was not completed
1 = Test was completed
generalPopulationMeanNumberCorrect The reported correct count of the general population tested by Baron-Cohen et al (2001, p. 245)
values.generalPopulationPropCorrect Proportion correct of the general population tested by Baron-Cohen et al (2001)
generalPopulationSD The reported standard deviation of correct counts of the general population tested by Baron-Cohen et al (2001, p. 245)
countCorr Count of correctly identified expressions
propCorrect Proportion correctly identified expressions
=> the higher the amount, the higher social sensitivity
zValue The z-value of the Correct Count (using the General Population Correct Count)
pValue The p-value of the correct count
meanRT Mean latency (ms) of correctly identified expressions

Raw Data

File Name: eyestest_raw*.iqdat

Data Fields

NameDescription
build Inquisit version number
computer.platform Device platform: win | mac |ios | android
date Date the session was run
time Time the session was run
subject Participant ID
group Group number
session Session number
blockCode Name of the current block
blockNum Number of the current block
trialCode Name of the current trial
trialNum Number of the current trial
gender "f"(emale) vs. "m"(ale) (gender of image)
trialCount Trial counter
image Stores the current image name
word1 Stores the current word1 (top left)
word2 Stores the current word2 (top right)
word3 Stores the current word3 (bottom left)
word4 Stores the current word4 (bottom right)
corrResp The correct response (1-4)
response The participant's response: selected word (word1-word4)
correct Accuracy of response
1 = correct response
0 = otherwise
latency The response latency (in ms) of current trial; measured from: onset of image until response is selected
rt The cumulative time (in ms) spent on the current image (includes time spent on dictionary)
measured from onset of image until a word is selected
countCorr Running count of correctly identified expressions

Parameters

The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.

NameDescriptionDefault
showSummaryFeedback True (1): participants are given the number of correctly selected emotions and their median reaction time
false (0): no performance feedback is provided at the end