In a pair of experiments reported in the prestigous journal Child Development, Ms. Elisa Back and colleagues from the University of Nottingham (UK) examined whether adolescents with Autism infer mental states less well than their peers. The issue is of interest because some researchers have hypothesized that inadequate skill in interpreting facial expressions may account, in part, for some of the social deficits of people with Autism. Ms. Back and her colleagues sought to clarify whether the phenomenon occurs and, if it does, whether certain parts of the face are difficulty for people with Autism to interpret.
If the eye regions of faces do not convey information about mental states, does that affect their ability to read the faces? By electronically freezing the eye regions of faces, they were able to assess whether individuals’ with Autism were differentially affected by getting less information from the eyes. Professor Back and her colleagues found no evidence indicating that individuals with Autism were inferior to the non-disabled participants. Their findings indicate that individuals with Autism are as effective as individual without Autism in interpreting mental states from the eyes on faces expressing the mental states.
The ability of individuals with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) to infer mental states from dynamic and static facial stimuli was investigated. In Experiment 1, individuals with ASD (10- to 14-year olds; N=18) performed above chance but not as well as controls. Accuracy scores for mental states did not differ between dynamic and static faces. Furthermore, participants with ASD gained higher scores when the eyes conveyed information than when this region remained static and neutral. Experiment 2 revealed that those with ASD (11- to 15-year olds; N=18) were as successful as controls in recognizing mental states when the eyes were presented in isolation or in the context of the whole face. Findings challenge claims that individuals with ASD are impaired at inferring mental states from the eyes.
Learn more by visiting Ms. Back’s Web site. You can see examples of the videos the researchers used in their study. Also, while you’re there, check the Web site for the Childhood Research in Autism Cognition, & Reasoning.
Back, E., Ropar, D., Mitchell, P. (2007). Do the eyes have it? Inferring mental states from animated faces in autism Child Development, 78, 397-411.
Sphere: Related Content
I was drawn into the field, for many reasons, after reading Uta Frith’s Theory of Mind work. Today, I’m less apt to infer what an individual infers as opposed to examining what he says. Continued research like this along with some expansion of Relational Frame Theory (RFT) and how individuals with autism form relational frames might provide incredible information about what autism really is and is not.
We really continue to enjoy this site.
Andrew, thanks for dropping a comment. I still struggle with inferences about people’s thinking, too. We seem to get so carried away with what we think people are thinking. I’m still stuck on what people do… but, of course, people don’t really do things, it’s just my interpretation. There is no objective reality. There is only our interpretations. It’s all make-believe. I’m just a butterfly’s dreams.
Stop me before I go completely whacky!