Reading the Mind in the Eyes - weird answers

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I've just taken this test, (I've taken it before but this was on a different website which was doing various surveys).

I found that for up to half of the questions, the possible answers, did not match the eyes at all IMO, so I had to pick an answer based on ruling out the other answers being even less likely (as in, ridiculous options) - even though I felt that the answer I chose didn't match either. I don't feel that how I answered it my score could be accurately measured because it was like a guess based on this.

I scored very highly, 33/36 correct, and it was stated that Aspies usually don't score higher than 26. I don't know how reliable this test actually is anyway, apart from the fact that quite a few of the faces are more obvious than they might be IRL, the fact that the expressions are in black and white (which allows you to focus more on the content than if it had been in colour, it kind of emphasises the lines of the expression somehow IMO), and that they are static pictures, not real life moving faces (expressions could be fleeting as well as mobile) which would be a lot harder.

I know also that we have more trouble with subtle expressions than with obvious ones, so again this test might not be the best measure of how an Aspie can cope with facial expressions (quite apart from the fact that there is also tone of voice and body language to take into consideration to gain an overall perspective).

Last edited by whirlingmind on 24 Feb 2013, 1:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I never understand those expressions either. A good many look very negative to me, some downright scary.

i also felt like that. half of the faces were inpossible for me to know, so i guessed (with some luck, it seems), others were obvious, yet the options were polar opposites (like: "this face is clearly furious", options: flirty/happy/joking/interested :S)

That's it! Exactly. Some I couldn't see any expression in at all, like it was eyes from the face of a wrinkled old man that didn't appear to be doing any expression. Others, maybe they were looking away and the options were nothing like it, like seductive, angry, confused or determined (just made up examples to illustrate).

Did they just use crap examples? Are some of them subjective?

According to a non-autistic person I know, they are using stage emotions. So, its what a person on stage/in a movie/etc will show for that emotion. (Said person scores 36/36 without our "well, it can't be any of those and my guess isn't on the list so I guess I'll guess this one" type of answering)

Well, I can say that

- I had more trouble with female eyes than male ones (and I'm female myself)
- Happy expressions were rather easy to identify
- I saw something like anger or fury in the eyes far more often than it was supposed to be there
- sometimes I looked at the picture, thought "this is clearly emotion xy", but nothing remotely similar was in the answer options, so I just guessed
- my overall result was mediocre.

wheres the webpage? I want to try this test..

You can find it here http://www.autismresearchcentre.com/arc_tests although where I just took it was another site.

I think this test is just one aspect of social skills, the above poster is right, b/w static images are very different from real-life quick, moving, stressful emotion reading...

The used photos of celebrities etc. out of magazines and such (e.g. I'm pretty sure Keanu Reeves is in there). Then a group of people voted on which expression they thought each picture showed out of options developed by the researchers. So in a way they are all subjective. It is possible that the correct option isn't available at all, as the celebrity did not advise the researchers as to how they were feeling when the photo was taken.

I took a similar test on 23andme. It was multiple choice, and I feel like my score was misrepresented because I basically had to guess. It took me a long time to answer each of the questions, because I was sitting there, puzzling over which option fit the face the best. When I take the Aspie Quiz, I put indifferent or staring for each of the sets. These answers are based on gut instinct, and not the result of me thinking it through, which I believe led to my higher score.

I think they should test out the following variations on it:

a) flashing the pictures by rapidly

b) providing the same list of all options for every item

c) choosing options which are more similar (eg all same valence positive vs negative)

I don't bother with online tests for this sort of thing. Recognising these sorts of things is more of a matter of instinct, not something to be printed on a screen and expected a precise, logical answer. All I see is just a pair of eyes, and it means nothing to me. When I'm communicating with people in general, I can easily recognise facial expressions and all of that stuff, but with these sorts of tests it just seems more harder.