Things you may not have known about the Eyes test

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yellowtamarin
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07 Aug 2012, 8:45 pm

The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test. Did you notice that a lot of the eyes look like they belong to celebrities? I was sure I saw Keanu Reeves in there. So I wondered, where did these pictures come from? How did the researches know what expression the person was displaying, if they were already existing photos of actors and such?

Here are some things I found out about the test that I thought others might find interesting:

- The faces were taken from magazine photos. (1)
- The "correct" word to describe the mental state behind each pair of eyes was generated by judges in open discussion, then tested against more judges. (1)
- The current version of the test is a revision. To create it, the original "correct" answers were tested again, and for those that didn't pass the criterion that "at least five out of eight judges agreed that the target word was the most suitable description", new "correct" words were established. (2)
- As stated in the article, "... target words were established on the basis of concensus ... since there is no objective method for identifying the underlying mental state from an expression." (2)

Anyone else find this interesting? The "correct" answers are based on the majority of judges' agreement, so really it could be that none of the answers are correct, just that the judges thought that the words chosen were probably describing the mental states of the celebrities in the magazine photos. The real correct word may just not have been thought of.


1. Baron-Cohen S, Jolliffe T, Mortimore C, Robertson M. Another advanced test of theory of mind: evidence from very high functioning adults with autism or Asperger syndrome. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 1997;38813- 822
2. Baron‐Cohen S, Wheelwright S, Hill J, Raste Y, Plumb I. 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; 42: 241–51.



yellowtamarin
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07 Aug 2012, 11:44 pm

Here's the test, btw, if you don't know what I was rambling on about: Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test



outofplace
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08 Aug 2012, 1:47 am

All I know is that I was quite clueless about the answers when I took it. It was like giving a kid in kindergarten a quantum physics final and expecting him to know the answers. Most of the time I was just guessing and I was surprised I did as well as I did.


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Patchwork
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08 Aug 2012, 5:28 am

Most of the eye photos were simply someone trying to look "seductive" or "angry" or whatever other emotion, they're not REAL expressions at real moments of intense emotion or feeling. It's all about knowing what someone's trying to convey to you with the image as far as I'm concerned, rather than actually telling what the emotion behind it was at the time.

I got the seductive one right because I know that's how people are supposed to look when they're seducing somebody, not because they actually do look like that. I've never seen anyone look at me like that in my life, let alone a woman, I've only ever seen people look like that when they're acting or posing, not when they're actually being seductive, and I've learned from TV that that's what people expect to see.

Most of the expressions on there I never or very rarely see in real life, more common are the more subtle expressions, that's what I struggle with; eg. When my doctor looks at me carefully with furrowed brows: Is that concern? Or confusion? Or thinking? Or him simply thinking "Good God you're weird!" If he was angry, I wouldn't have a problem.

It's not just eyes we use to tell what someone's emotion is anyway, it's their body language, their expression, their language. I think even NT's would have found a lot of the eye's indescribable without being able to see at least the mouth.

Your score: 31
A typical score is in the range 22-30. If you scored over 30,
you are very accurate at decoding a person's facial expressions
around their eyes. A score under 22 indicates you find this quite difficult

It's not difficult because it's all about patterns. When you look at pictures eyes often enough like in magazines, and are told the feeling behind them, you notice patterns and can work out a very simple code. This simply doesn't work in real life.



Who_Am_I
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08 Aug 2012, 6:15 am

That's interesting.
Also, I agree with Patchwork's post.


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08 Aug 2012, 6:21 am

Very interesting.

The test is designed to spot emotions (or whatever you wanna call it).

If a facial expression has been created by evolution to communicate with another person, then one can argue that whatever the majority of other people see/feel is what evolution intended to say.

I saw a test done by some Stanford phd. Put together a speed dating thing. Asked both male/female if the other person was interested in them, if they had to guess. Males did very often beleive the female was interested when she wasnt. The researcher argued that evolution might have shaped males to read sexual interest where there is none. Because ... blabla you get the point.

My point is, does it matter what the person is really feeling? Or is the majority answer what you need to register as the correct answer in your brain to interact in a social interactions. The true feeling might be more interesting to a FBI agent or for other reasons.
If evolution made sure that most people interpret an expression in one way, regardless of what the person is really feeling, there might be a purpose for it.


That being said. Its a common known fact that some facial expression are near impossible to fake. Quite difficult to capture those moments as well. So im not surprised if some of the pics in the eye test are "flawed"/fake versions of the feeling.

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