Reading the Mind Test

This "Reading the Mind" test was first published in the book, "The Essential Difference", by Simon Baron-Cohen, Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at the University of Cambridge. It lets you see how well you can judge the feelings and thoughts of people by just looking at a photograph of their eyes. Most people are actually pretty good at this, women being slightly better than men.

Its clinical use is in helping with the diagnosis of High Functioning Autism and Asperger's Syndrome (which disproportionately affects programmers) but I think it's an interesting test for just about anyone to try. Try the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test.



Posted by Alexander at March 2, 2006 12:37 PM

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Tracked on March 4, 2006 10:55 PM

The "Reading the Mind test" is a load of rubbish and so are Simon Baron Cohens air-brain ideas, just like his cousin Sacha Baron Cohen otherwise known as Borat! Both are vastly over-rated. Did anyone tell the people in the photographs what they were meant to be feeling so they acted? Or did the photographer actually use a stimulus to create the feeling? In the event of the former, it isn't reading the mind through the eyes if the part is being played out. In the case of the latter, a stimulus is very dubious. Which came first: the photograph or the assigned "feelings" to the eyes?



Posted by: Miscellaneous at November 12, 2006 10:19 PM

Oddly, this website and test gives me a great deal of insight to myself. I have had peculiar occurrences in my life that have left me guessing if there is something different about myself. There was a point in time about ten years ago where I experienced what I thought to be a very unusual occurrence. For a short period I came across this looking into the eyes and reading the mind activity. I never researched this or knew that it was something that was studied. I thought maybe I was having some sort of mental breakdown, but for a short while I was looking into peoples eyes and thinking that I could almost read their minds. I could not actually hear what they were thinking but I could somehow understand their disposition. It was as if I had never looked anyone in the eye before. Ten years later I have been trying to understand what it was that happened. I have a brother that I believed had narcissistic personality disorder. From what I have read, a person with this disorder can not empathize. I was thinking that I, myself, may have had this same disorder and came out of the disorder by somehow suddenly being able to empathize. I connected this occurrence of looking into someone's eyes and understanding their disposition as an all the sudden being able to empathize. Supposedly, it can be somewhat common for children to have the affects of narcissistic personality disorder and then to grow out of it due to life occurrences. After reading an article about how many times people with Asperger can be misdiagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder and then seeing this test as a test for asperger I am becoming aware that I may suffer from asperger rather then narcissistic personality disorder.

Posted by: charles at May 31, 2007 04:30 AM

pre-script: my html tags are removed. i understand security, but can't I have a line break? Or could a moderator please make this a little more readable for me?[line break] i agree that the current tests are rubbish. i didn't finish either of the autism tests I just looked at, one asking you to read the expression in pictures of eyes, and the other asking questions that let you answer on a continuum of "definitely agree" to "definitely disagree".

[line break]

things like eye expression are highly localized. all individuals react differently, and most cultures react differently, and as mentioned elsewhere, these are actors who were probably not feeling the emotion involved.

[line break]

and the one with the questions.....first off, does the question "I am fascinated by dates." mean romantic dates or historical ones? (or fruit)

but the other questions, like "I prefer to do things with others rather than on my own" and "I prefer to do things the same way over and over again" and "When I'm reading a story, I can easily imagine what the characters might look like."

[line break]

for me, have answers like:

1."there's a potentially different answer for every single activity and individual in question"

2."i prefer empirically determining what works, and doing things that work, though I crave variety and hate routine"

3."i CAN easily imagine what the characters look like, though, for me, some of the fun is letting a character's face be fuzzy, sometimes looking one way and sometimes another, as a loose aggregate of every face, behavior, and attitude I've ever known. also, since I'm not usually aware of what my own face looks like, I can imagine being a character better by not imagining their face"

[line break]

I simply cannot answer the questions by saying "I definitely agree", "I slightly agree", "I slightly disagree", or "I definitely disagree." That's why I never finished the test.

[line break]

i have not been diagnosed with autism or asperger's (except by myself and family), and have been diagnosed with depression, adolescent defiant syndrome, bipolar disorder, and others I don't remember. my own studies of psychiatry, psychology, therapy, and antropology have lead me to conclude that most of these diagnoses are claptrap. (psychiatrists and psychologists struggle to stay relevant in a changing environment. i find them to be detached, rude fools, relying on half-baked theorems and malformed schemas, who like Palin can't leave a narrowly written script without sounding ridiculous)

[line break]

though I admit I do exhibit some defined characteristics of MANY different "disorders",

1. I find many diagnoses merely a graduated version of the labels that populate and hurt our young, and also

2. I disagree that most of the drugs on the market are safe. If I'm alive in a hundred years, I'd consider looking at the data. as is, tinkering with the brain is a multi-billion $ industry that literally guesses at what might help you, and knows it has not accumulated even a fraction of the data it would take to profess true empiricism. seriously. there are an estimated 60+ neurotransmitters who have not been isolated, in addition to what we consider the "main" ones (dopamine, seratonin, acetacholine, norepinephrin [forgive the spelling, I'm drunk])

Remember basic algebra? 2x+1=5 and so forth. imagine then an equation with every letter of the alphabet, every letter of the greek alphabet, and a handful of letters in a third alphabet. 60+ variables. COMPLEX SHIT, and psychiatrists and pharmaceutical companies make it seem like they have a lock on how the brain works, that they can make you feel better, just buy these pills

this arena of science, lik every arena or science, is like a scraggly brown weed, intaking just enough water and just enough poisoned air to survive. We Need To Throw Money At Science

Posted by: mutant minds at November 16, 2008 05:02 AM

pre-script: my html tags are removed. i understand security, but can't I have a line break? Or could a moderator please make this a little more readable for me?[line break] i agree that the current tests are rubbish. i didn't finish either of the autism tests I just looked at, one asking you to read the expression in pictures of eyes, and the other asking questions that let you answer on a continuum of "definitely agree" to "definitely disagree".

[line break]

things like eye expression are highly localized. all individuals react differently, and most cultures react differently, and as mentioned elsewhere, these are actors who were probably not feeling the emotion involved.

[line break]

and the one with the questions.....first off, does the question "I am fascinated by dates." mean romantic dates or historical ones? (or fruit)

but the other questions, like "I prefer to do things with others rather than on my own" and "I prefer to do things the same way over and over again" and "When I'm reading a story, I can easily imagine what the characters might look like."

[line break]

for me, have answers like:

1."there's a potentially different answer for every single activity and individual in question"

2."i prefer empirically determining what works, and doing things that work, though I crave variety and hate routine"

3."i CAN easily imagine what the characters look like, though, for me, some of the fun is letting a character's face be fuzzy, sometimes looking one way and sometimes another, as a loose aggregate of every face, behavior, and attitude I've ever known. also, since I'm not usually aware of what my own face looks like, I can imagine being a character better by not imagining their face"

[line break]

I simply cannot answer the questions by saying "I definitely agree", "I slightly agree", "I slightly disagree", or "I definitely disagree." That's why I never finished the test.

[line break]

i have not been diagnosed with autism or asperger's (except by myself and family), and have been diagnosed with depression, adolescent defiant syndrome, bipolar disorder, and others I don't remember. my own studies of psychiatry, psychology, therapy, and antropology have lead me to conclude that most of these diagnoses are claptrap. (psychiatrists and psychologists struggle to stay relevant in a changing environment. i find them to be detached, rude fools, relying on half-baked theorems and malformed schemas, who like Palin can't leave a narrowly written script without sounding ridiculous)

[line break]

though I admit I do exhibit some defined characteristics of MANY different "disorders",

1. I find many diagnoses merely a graduated version of the labels that populate and hurt our young, and also

2. I disagree that most of the drugs on the market are safe. If I'm alive in a hundred years, I'd consider looking at the data. as is, tinkering with the brain is a multi-billion $ industry that literally guesses at what might help you, and knows it has not accumulated even a fraction of the data it would take to profess true empiricism. seriously. there are an estimated 60+ neurotransmitters who have not been isolated, in addition to what we consider the "main" ones (dopamine, seratonin, acetacholine, norepinephrin [forgive the spelling, I'm drunk])

Remember basic algebra? 2x+1=5 and so forth. imagine then an equation with every letter of the alphabet, every letter of the greek alphabet, and a handful of letters in a third alphabet. 60+ variables. COMPLEX SHIT, and psychiatrists and pharmaceutical companies make it seem like they have a lock on how the brain works, that they can make you feel better, just buy these pills

this arena of science, lik every arena or science, is like a scraggly brown weed, intaking just enough water and just enough poisoned air to survive. We Need To Throw Money At Science

Posted by: mutant minds at November 16, 2008 05:02 AM