Institutional development · Research, innovation and assessment · Japan
Kyoto University-led team validates Japanese film-clip test of social cognition
Researchers from four Japanese institutions built a Japanese version of the Reading the Mind in Films test. Adults with autism scored significantly lower on it than adults with depression and the general population.
Why it matters: Researchers and clinicians studying social difficulties in Japanese-speaking adults with autism or depression now have a Japanese-language film-based social cognition test with reported validation.
Kyoto University said a research group from its Graduate School of Medicine, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine and the University of Tsukuba created a Japanese version of the Reading the Mind in Films (RMF) test and checked its validity and usefulness as a psychological test.
The test asks participants to infer characters' feelings and intentions from film scenes, and in comparisons the group of adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) scored significantly lower than both the general-adult group and the group with depression, according to the university.
The university said the moving-image test supplied information complementary to the older still-image 'Reading the Mind in the Eyes' test, capturing social cognition features that the earlier test could not fully detect.
The findings were published online in the international journal Autism Research on 19 October 2026.
Editor’s view
Scott James, Research and Innovation Editor
Researchers and clinicians assessing Japanese-speaking adults with autism or depression can use the Japanese RMF alongside the still-image eyes test; the team said it expects the work to help clarify the social difficulties seen in various neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions and to support individually tailored help.
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