I can read facial expressions, im not an aspie?

Post Reply New Topic

Hi : )
I score highly in diagnosis, but also in facial expression tests- its not mutually exclusive. This is why AS is a spectrum disorder. Discovering you have AS is disorientating- im confident, sociable- things which seem contradictory to the stereotype of AS. I also struggled with the whole 'but AS is x and i dont do that!!' thing at first : )

It does vary though- most of the time im laser sharp in understanding others' emotions- sometimes i struggle, sometimes im 100% oblivious even when told. It varies from day to day, rather than circumstance. I think of my AS like malaria- sometimes it really knocks me down, othertimes i can hide it so youd never guess on meeting me i have it.

After you discover you have AS the next thing is even more overwhealming- figuring out where you are on the spectrum. I found out i have AS over 4 yrs ago; i still realise new things each week.

Oddly, despite all the hypochrondria online about health in general, i was told by an AS expert that something like 95% of the people she sees who think they have AS go on to gain confirmation via diagnosis! Its not just confined to maths ability, social anxiety, or social awkwardness etc: which is how id stereotyped it to myself. theres a panolpy of symptoms going back through our lives which corroborate the suspicion that its all AS related. since its a spectrum, you can be diagnosed, but have none of the more stereotypical aspects.

Ive got extreme sensory issues, but im terrible at maths, tech & science. My working memory (short term ability to hold several things in mind simultaniously) is awful, but ive got idetic/photographic memory sometimes. I can talk for hours, other times im literally mute.

Theres no logic~ you may have none if the things you *expect* AS to be, or things which seem like mind boggling contradictions!
Good luck with working out your 'things' : )

The first time I did this "mind in the eye" test, it was very hard for me. Aside from a few obvious ones, most of the expressions looked just neutral to me. But I plowed through, and found analytical ways to guess the answers- (analytical guessing is different from actually knowing what you're seeing). In that first test, I scored somewhere in the "Aspie" section. However, I was intrigued with the test, and facial expressions, and over time I took many more facial tests, mostly here on Wrong Planet. As time went on, I got better and better. With the last test I took, I got a score *higher* than the average NT, and it was written "you are obviously highly empathetic and can easily read the feelings of others"! Which is way off base. It's different looking at a picture and staring for a long time at a frozen expression, and not only that, you have 4 possibilities to choose from! (If I had to conjure up the answers myself I think I'd do much worse). I know I must be missing things in real life, because I often have trouble figuring out the subtle expressions and social subtext in movies, even though I can rewind and watch things over and over again. I think a social situation in it's entirety is much more difficult; first off, you're not focusing on a single still life, but trying to figure out the whole situation at once. Another problem I think I have in real life is I'm often not looking in the right place to pick up on micro-expressions......and even if I were, there's so much other stuff to think about, I think I would still miss stuff.

So, in other words, I think you can learn how to do the test well. But that doesn't necessarily translate at all in the real world.

I wonder if it would be more sensitive if they flashed the pictures by quickly instead of letting you take as long as you want?

i have a good understanding of non literal language but i am diagnosed HF autistic.

Some nice feminine eyes in that test.
1st time
Results:

Your score: 28
A typical score is in the range 22-30. If you scored over 30,
you are very accurate at decoding a person's facial expressions
around their eyes. A score under 22 indicates you find this quite difficult.
The correct answers for the ones you missed are:
1: playful
6: fantasizing
11: regretful
12: sceptical
13: anticipating
17: doubtful
20: friendly
29: reflective

Im a bit tired taking the test and I'm amazed I missed so many.

I got a 20 on the eyes test, a score that is below average even for aspies, which was extremely shocking to me because I actually consider myself to be pretty good at reading faces. But I think that's the thing, though: I'm good at reading whole faces, not just the eyes. I remember getting actually quite irritated and wanting to shake my monitor and scream, "Just show me a little more of the face and I've totally got this!! Argh!!"

With just the eyes alone, it looked like a lot of them were just "thinking about something," so I put that a lot.

So apparently I am terrible at reading just the eyes, but I still consider myself good at faces. Good thing I don't live in a country where people wear face clothes all the time!

Or maybe the test is just bogus.

I'm no therapist, but I think it's worth noting that the DSM-IV criteria doesn't explicitly mention the inability to read facial expressions. It discusses "marked impairments in the use of multiple non-verbal behaviors", which I take to mean that you may have difficulty reading others' facial expressions, tone of voice, body language, etc..., or you may have difficulty using non-verbal cues--or you may even have a hard time with both.

Here's another test--unlike the Mind in the Eyes test, the multiple choices you have to pick from don't change throughout the test:

http://www.neurodiversity.com/nvc/index.html

Have you tried some other related tests?
If you're 30 years old, it's quite likely that you have learned many facial expressions already.

I think many researchers still haven't realized that autism (of any kind) doesn't just disappear after childhood, though the original symptoms may become less obvious.