Ocular motility and cognitive process

This study investigates the amount of ocular motility occuring in response to questions varying the kind of cognitive process required for answer. Fewer eye movements occur in response to questions designed to elicit visuo-spatial as compared to verbal-conceptual processes, a finding consistent with our earlier observation of more ‘stares’ occuring with the former than with the latter questions. The results are inconsistent with the traditional hypothesis that visual imagery involves an increase in scanning eye movements. The findings are interpreted in terms of a model postulating an interaction of the form of visual information processing and the type of cognitive activity subjects engage in.