Cambridge University Autism Research Center - Faces Test - Inaccurate?

[Neonatal RRT]

Faces Test - Autism Research Centre

So, just for curiosity, I took the faces test. Better described as the "Eyes Test". I scored 34/36,...which I was not expecting, at all. Then I realized something,...it was a multiple choice test. In other words, the answer was right there,...all I had to do was pick one out of the four on each facial expression,...actually, it is just the eyes. I realize that, from the perspective of the examiner,...the one doing the scoring,...a multiple choice test is quick and easy. However, in this particular case, if the answers were not there,...I would have scored extremely low in my attempt to figure out what these faces were expressing.

Even though I am used to wearing PPE for work in the hospital, I still have a miserable time trying to figure out social cues. One would think over time, this would get easier, but it doesn't seem like it to me. I am wondering how everyone here is doing with all this CoVID-19 mask wearing and their communication skills?

 

[Thinx]

I walk around in my own personal ND headzone, not really troubled by others. I am very careful to wear masks and sometimes gloves, but hardly go anywhere at present except to food shop weekly, and out for walks.

I never look at anyone or catch their eye, when I'm out in the world of unstructured social interaction, I just do whatever I came to do, for example follow my shopping list. Sometimes people get too close for adequate covid distancing, that's annoying.

 

[Finder]

This is to test variation in a population. Given you also may have learnt to understand facial expressions in your career, you might in fact do well. I did pretty well as well. This is why test such as these are not diagnostic. You simply don't match the average for those know to have autism.

 

[Progster]

Any multiple choice test is going to be inaccurate by definition: it asks you to choose from a limited number of categories, forcing you to pigeonhole what might be a complex experience.

For sure, I'm going to do better at such a multiple choice test as the eyes test, because it gives one or two answers that don't fit that I can eliminate right away, then need to choose between two similar answers where I have a 50% chance of being right. Real life in the field, however, is not like that: when reading faces, one does not have a multiple choice list appearing to guide you. There are all sorts of things going on during social interaction - background noise and movement, people talking and all sorts of distractors, and often the expression is just there for a microsecond - easy to miss - even NTs aren't going to pick up on all that's going on. It's a matter of processing - our brain prioritises and processes incoming information in a different way, so we find it hard to pick up cues in the field - a more accurate test is one where they show you film clips and ask you to evaluate what just happened in the scene. Not perfect, but better.

I find it a lot harder to read people with the masks, because I rely on the whole face, not just the eyes... I'm not so great at eye contact anyway: I do look at people's faces, just not at their eyes. The mask gives me a false sense of security in thinking that because I don't read people's eyes, that other people can't read mine either, where that might not be the case. Other people might be a lot better at reading eyes than I am.

 

[Wolfgangus Faldestolius]

If people want to convey something they'll have to convey something. I don't even recognise people with one on, at all.

 

[SDRSpark]

I am not sure if I've taken that particular test, but I've taken similar tests.

My experience has been this: I see the picture and think "Oh, that's X emotion." Then I look at the list of choices, and the one I first thought (and in a real world situation would have gone with) isn't an option. So I might be able to eliminate a couple of the choices, then I guess between the two that are left, or I pick the one that's maybe similar to what I originally thought, if there is one.

Either way, I manage to get a relatively high score despite having no idea what's going on for the entire test.

I have successfully conned the NT's into thinking I'm one of them. But diagnostically, it's not very helpful.

 

[OkRad]

I love the masks. No more guessing and no more faking. I will keep it up after COVID (if it ever ends)