Sex, Age, and Emotional Valence: Revealing Possible Biases in the 'Reading the Mind in the Eyes' Task

Frontiers in Psychology
Jana Kynast, Matthias L Schroeter

Abstract

The 'Reading the Mind in the Eyes' test (RMET) assesses a specific socio-cognitive ability, i.e., the ability to identify mental states from gaze. The development of this ability in a lifespan perspective is of special interest. Whereas former investigations were limited mainly to childhood and adolescence, the focus has been shifted towards aging, and psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases recently. Although the RMET is frequently applied in developmental psychology and clinical settings, stimulus characteristics have never been investigated with respect to potential effects on test performance. Here, we analyzed the RMET stimulus set with a special focus on interrelations between sex, age and emotional valence. Forty-three persons rated age and emotional valence of the RMET picture set. Differences in emotional valence and age ratings between male and female items were analyzed. The linear relation between age and emotional valence was tested over all items, and separately for male and female items. Male items were rated older and more negative than female stimuli. Regarding male RMET items, age predicted emotional valence: older age was associated with negative emotions. Contrary, age and valence were not linearly relate...Continue Reading

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Citations

Jan 9, 2020·Neurological Sciences : Official Journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology·ZhongQuan YiPingLei Pan
Dec 29, 2020·Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews·XiaoGuang LinZhongQuan Yi
Nov 17, 2020·Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience·Jana KynastMatthias L Schroeter
Feb 27, 2021·Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience·Jana KynastMatthias L Schroeter

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