The "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" test revised version: A study with normal adults, and adults with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism

In 1997 in this Journal we published the "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" Tes t, as a measure of adult "mentalising''. Whilst that test succeeded in disc riminating a group of adults with Asperger syndrome (AS) or high-functionin g autism (HFA) from controls, it suffered from several psychometric problem s. In this paper these limitations are rectified by revising the test. The Revised Eyes Test was administered to a group of adults with AS or HFA (N = 15) and again discriminated these from a large number of normal controls ( N = 239) drawn from different samples. In both the clinical and control gro ups the Eyes Test was inversely correlated with the Autism Spectrum Quotien t (the AQ), a measure of autistic traits in adults of normal intelligence. The Revised Eyes Test has improved power to detect subtle individual differ ences in social sensitivity.