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The “Reading the Mind in the Eyes” test: Systematic review of psychometric properties and a validation study in Italy
Open accessAbstract
INTRODUCTION: The "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" test (henceforth, Eyes test) is a simple but advanced Theory of Mind test, and it is widely used across different cultures. This study assessed the reliability and construct (convergent and discriminant) validity of the Eyes test in Italy. METHODS: A sample of 18- to 32-year-old undergraduate students of both sexes (N=200, males=46%) were invited to fill in the Italian version of the Eyes test, the Empathy Quotient (EQ), the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS), and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (SDS). RESULTS: Internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) was .605. Confirmatory factor analysis provided evidence for a unidimensional model, with maximal weighted internal consistency reliability=.719. Test-retest reliability for the Eyes test, as measured by intraclass correlation coefficient, was .833 (95% confidence interval=.745 to .902). Females scored significantly higher than males on both the Eyes test and the EQ, replicating earlier work. Those participants who scored lower than 30 on the EQ (n=10) also scored lower on the Eyes test than those who did not (p<.05). Eyes test scores were not related to social desirability. CONCLUSIONS: This study confirms the validity of the Eyes test. Both internal consistency and test-retest stability were good for the Italian version of the Eyes test.
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“The test has good internal consistency and test-retest reliability [60, 61].”
From A 'choice', an 'addiction', a way 'out of the lost': Exploring self-injury in autistic people without intellectual disability (2019) · cites this paper as [60]
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“However, the results of a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) suggest that the division of items into an affect specific factor is a poor fit to the data (Vellante et al., 2012).”
From A psychometric analysis of the reading the mind in the eyes test: toward a brief form for research and applied settings (2015) · cites this paper as Vellante et al., 2012
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“The internal consistency of the RMET is modest, with Cronbach’s alpha varying between 0.37 and 0.61 across cultural adaptations (Khorashad et al., 2015; Vellante et al., 2013).”
From ‘Theory of Mind’ is not Theory of Emotion: a cautionary note on the reading the Mind in the Eyes test (2016) · cites this paper as Vellante et al., 2013
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“The Eyes Test also does not meet assumptions of normality (Söderstrand and Almkvist, 2012; Vellante et al., 2012).”
From A psychometric analysis of the reading the mind in the eyes test: toward a brief form for research and applied settings (2015) · cites this paper as Vellante et al., 2012
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“However, the test-retest reliability of the measure is acceptable (Hallerbäck et al., 2009; Yildirim et al., 2011; Vellante et al., 2012; Prevost et al., 2014; Khorashad et al., 2015).”
From A psychometric analysis of the reading the mind in the eyes test: toward a brief form for research and applied settings (2015) · cites this paper as Vellante et al., 2012
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Metadata
- Authors
- Vellante, M., Baron-Cohen, S., Melis, M., Marrone, M., Petretto, D. R., Masala, C., & Preti, A.
- Affiliations
- University of Cagliari (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Preti, Antonio
- ORCID
- Preti, Antonio
- Venue
- Cognitive Neuropsychiatry
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2013-07
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 326-354
- ISSN
- 1354-6805 (ISSN-L)
- 1464-0619
- PMC
- PMC6345369
- OpenAlex
- W2070605229
- Cited by
- 406
- References
- 129
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 22 · 2024: 23 · 2023: 33 · 2022: 42 · 2021: 44 · 2020: 39 · 2019: 35 · 2018: 31 · 2017: 36 · 2016: 38 · 2015: 25 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 10
- FWCI
- 1.21
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- europepmc.org
- Locations
- Cognitive Neuropsychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- UNICA IRIS Institutional Research Information System (University of Cagliari) (submittedVersion)
- Institutional Research Information System University of Turin (University of Turin) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (091774)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Keywords
- Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test, theory of mind, psychometric validation, Italian adaptation, reliability statistics, construct validity, convergent validity, discriminant validity, empathy, alexithymia, social desirability, gender differences
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Affective Symptoms, Data Interpretation, Statistical, Empathy, Eye, Factor Analysis, Statistical, Female, Humans, Male, Neuropsychological Tests, Psychometrics, Social Desirability, Reproducibility of Results, Sample Size, Young Adult, Theory of Mind
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