Reading the Mind in the Eyes


How well can you perceive the thoughts and feelings of others?

The Reading The Mind In The Eyes task measures a participant's ability to infer someone's emotion from their eyes and can be used as a test of Theory of Mind (the ability to recognize the thoughts and feelings of others).

Theory of Mind is an important concept in Psychology that represents the capacity to understand the mental states (thoughts and feelings) of others. The Reading the Mind in the Eyes tasks was developed as a way to measure individual differences in Theory of Mind. High scores on this task correlate with more complex Emotional Intelligence (EI) capabilities.

Resources:
  • http://socialintelligence.labinthewild.org/mite/
  • Megías-Robles, A., Gutiérrez-Cobo, M. J., Cabello, R., Gómez-Leal, R., Baron-Cohen, S., & Fernández-Berrocal, P. (2020). The ‘Reading the mind in the Eyes' test and emotional intelligence. The Royal Society, 7(9). https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.201305
  • Olderbak, S., Wilhelm, O., Olaru, G., Geiger, M., Brenneman M. W., & Roberts, R. D. (2015). A psychometric analysis of the reading the mind in the eyes test: toward a brief form for research and applied settings. Frontiers in Psychology, 6. 1503. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01503

Parameters
The following features can be tweaked (default values in parentheses):
  • Task instructions (with/without timeout)
  • Number of trials (36)
    Note: by default, all 36 main trials are in fixed sequence
  • Number of practice trials (1)
  • Whether or not to display post-participation questionnaire asking about English proficiency and comprehension (No)
  • Whether trials should timeout (No)
  • Duration of timeout (5000 ms)
  • Duration of feedback during practice trial (3000 ms)

What data is collected? How is it scored?
The following variables are recorded:
  • proportion_correct
  • mean_response_time
The main variables are the average reaction time (ms) and the proportion of correct responses. Practice trials are not included.

What participants see before taking the task

In this task, you will be presented with images of faces that are cropped so that just the eyes are visible, and you will be asked to respond to questions about these images.

What participants see after taking the task

Thank you for participating in this task. The Reading The Mind In The Eyes task measures your ability to infer someone's emotion from their eyes and can be used as a test of Theory of Mind (the ability to recognize the thoughts and feelings of others).

Aggregate Variables

These data are automatically written to a csv file upon completion of the task

  • proportion_correct
  • mean_response_time

Duration

10 mins

Resources

  • http://socialintelligence.labinthewild.org/mite/
  • Megías-Robles, A., Gutiérrez-Cobo, M. J., Cabello, R., Gómez-Leal, R., Baron-Cohen, S., & Fernández-Berrocal, P. (2020). The ‘Reading the mind in the Eyes' test and emotional intelligence. The Royal Society, 7(9). https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.201305
  • Olderbak, S., Wilhelm, O., Olaru, G., Geiger, M., Brenneman M. W., & Roberts, R. D. (2015). A psychometric analysis of the reading the mind in the eyes test: toward a brief form for research and applied settings. Frontiers in Psychology, 6. 1503. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01503

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MINDHIVE was designed for students & teachers who seek authentic STEM research experience, and for neuroscientists & cognitive/social psychologists who seek to address their research questions outside of the lab.

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