Always See, Never Lie
Here, we demonstrate how the eyes and their position give an insight into the nature of the systematic choices made by the brain’s ‘random number generator’. By measuring a person’s vertical and horizontal eye position, we were able to predict with reliable confidence the size of the next number — before it was spoken. Specifically, a leftward and downward change in eye position announced that the next number would be smaller than the last. Correspondingly, if the eyes changed position to the right and upward, it forecast that the next number would be larger. Apart from supporting the old wisdom that it is often the eyes that betray the mind, the findings highlight the intricate links between supposedly abstract thought processes, the body’s actions and the world around us.
…
Our results are therefore particularly interesting because they demonstrate links between numbers, magnitude and movement in a task where no action planning was required — especially as they relate to a task-irrelevant oculo-motor system. Our study is also noteworthy because it demonstrates that simply thinking of random numbers is accompanied by systematic changes in eye position. Lateral eye movements have previously been linked specifically to the computation of mental arithmetic problems, such as addition and subtraction.
Also cognitive scientists use the movement of eyes to investigate the moral life of babies.
It’s a challenge to study the cognitive abilities of any creature that lacks language, but human babies present an additional difficulty, because, even compared to rats or birds, they are behaviorally limited: they can’t run mazes or peck at levers. In the 1980s, however, psychologists interested in exploring how much babies know began making use of one of the few behaviors that young babies can control: the movement of their eyes. The eyes are a window to the baby’s soul. As adults do, when babies see something that they find interesting or surprising, they tend to look at it longer than they would at something they find uninteresting or expected.
There are things you cannot lie eventually. This is the “Shannon Limit” for behavior-based social science.
