Thinking and Eye Movements

Researchers in the early eighties discovered that our eyes move in a certain way when we think. Based on the eyes movement, we can tell what type of thoughts are going through a person’s mind.

When you observe a person’s eyes, if they (LCS 2010):
• look up – it is to visualize (sight)
• look up and left – they are visualizing something they have not seen before or making something up
• look up and right – they are remembering images they have seen before
• look side to side – it is to listen (sound)
• look left – they are creating or making up sounds they have not heard before
• look right – they are remembering sounds they have heard before
• look down – it is to reflect inward
• look down and left – they are talking to themselves
• look down and right – they are accessing their feelings

This natural connection between thinking and eye movements show that the eyes shift between seeing and thinking. When we are in deep thoughts, our eyes are shifting to thinking mode and we are looking inwards rather than looking to see something. This make the image appears a little blurry. Many of us spend a lot of our time reading and processing the material, or working and creating new ideas. This trains our eyes and mind to adapt more toward thinking mode. It is possible for us to look at something and at the same time think about something else thus causing the eyes to use thinking mode to see. This confusion can lead to a habit of using our eyes in thinking mode as we look at something. It is as if we are looking at something while we are daydreaming. This prevent our eyes from focusing correctly at the object.

Our eyes and mind can adapt to this ways of seeing. Many of us, including myself, tend to use this thinking mode to see, especially when we caught up with our thoughts or busy working. This means that in order to see clearly, we must be conscious of this shift and pay attention to what we are looking at. This allow the eyes and mind to use the correct mode to focus on the object we want to see.

Summary

Muscles control our eyesight and give it the flexibility to adapt to any task. It allows us to move our eyes, view a large area, see sharp details, and shift between thinking and seeing. This flexibility can be a problem because our modern lifestyle is pushing the limits of our eyes’ ability. Our eye muscles must contract and relax to function properly. However, modern lifestyle requires our eyes to do near work for hours at a time, work indoor under artificial low lighting, and under stress to meet deadlines. All these conditions force our eye muscles to contract and hold for long periods. This misuse cramps our muscles, interfering with the smooth fine adjustments needed for clear vision. It also produces eyestrain causing our vision to remain blurry. In order to understand the damage done to our eyes, we will explore the two type of eyestrain further in the next chapter.