Why Do Our Eyes Move When We Think?

You might have heard the myth that you can tell when someone is lying based on how their eyes move. While that is not exactly true, there has been plenty of science that looks into where and how we look when we think.

Hosted by: Michael Aranda

----------
----------
Huge thanks go to the following Patreon supporters for helping us keep SciShow free for everyone forever:

Bryan Cloer, Sam Lutfi, Kevin Bealer, Jacob, Christoph Schwanke, Jason A Saslow, Eric Jensen, Jeffrey Mckishen, Nazara, Ash, Matt Curls, Christopher R Boucher, Alex Hackman, Piya Shedden, Adam Brainard, charles george, Jeremy Mysliwiec, Dr. Melvin Sanicas, Chris Peters, Harrison Mills, Silas Emrys, Alisa Sherbow

----------
Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet?
----------
Sources:

Image Sources:

[Roseyfinchartworks]

My therapist just brought this up to me today, she asked “when I ask you something and you start to look around, what is that about?” I told her, it’s me thinking and trying to organize my thoughts while talking. If I try to maintain eye contact while speaking about something significant it just makes it so much harder to concentrate on what I’m saying.

[tawon]

Thumbnail instantly made me think of the confused lady meme 😄

[misterfister]

QUESTION: Do blind people demonstrate similar saccades in similar cognitive circumstances? What about within a question-genre analogous to "visual" but in a format applicable to a blind person, i.e. textures or smells? Is there any notable difference in these behaviors when comparing a person blind from birth against another person who lost their sight? Does the circumstances of how the vision was lost matter -- i.e., disease vs traumatic injury? What about the age at which a person lost their sight, i.e. adolescence vs middle age?

[desertsage]

This begs the question of visually impaired individuals and what their eyes do when they're accessing information from memories...

[drewbaker]

I think our eyes move as a natural reaction to figuring out our suroundings. By moving them around, we're less likely to fixate on one object, which leaves us more free to think abstractly. Closing our eyes might do the same thing, but isn't always convenient to do, or we might appear somewhat weird.

[notyourwaifu]

SciShow is at 6.99 million subscribers - almost at 7m!! My faith in humanity is restored by knowing that such an awesome channel has such a big following

[Toastmaster_]

This is another one of those studies that over-complicates things.
Your vision is "computationally expensive". For a lot of people, it's just a matter of retaining focus. Your brain is pretty active when you're watching someone who is directly watching you, so when you have to think hard about something, you need to look away (typically at something dull) to reduce the stimulation. It's the same kind of thing why people need to turn down the radio when they're struggling to navigate in the car, or why you sit closer to the screen when trying to play a difficult game (since it decreases your peripheral vision).
Some people are just better at focusing without looking away then others.

[michaeldufresne]

Do people who are born blind exhibit sacades when accessing memories the same way sighted people do?

[PushyPawn]

Chess players do this often, sometimes looking quiet far away from the board and even moving the entire head, i.e. looking up at the ceiling or to one side. Whether calculating a current position or remembering a series of moves from a past game, looking away helps to visualise the thought process. Here's an example of Grand Master Hikaru Nakamura doing it:

[maattthhhh]

So it's kinda like waving your arms when trying to explain something. Your body is trying to help you gather your thoughts.

[FeartheKlown]

Good to know. I tend to always glance upwards when doing memory recall, and I sometimes feel crazy when I'm aware of it.

[ebonyblack]

Even if there were some consistent cues to the eye movement there are so many outliers that it'd be incredibly hit & miss. Among the list of things that can impact body language cues: Neural divergence, handedness, and trauma. Just with those three you can easily toss an easy quarter, or more, of any given sample size; not to even factor in a dozen other things that make old tropes like that faulty.

[kataseiko]

Now here's a question.. Someone told me that people can actually "see" a picture in their mind when you explain to them something like "a clearing in the forest with a deer on it, some motes of dust dancing in the sunlight". Do those saccades still happen the same way when people like me who don't have such a "mental image"?

[TheDevler]

would this tie into how EMDR works? the eye movements specific and controlled while processing trauma memories? interesting!

[AkhilSinghKhyalia]

When I have to imagine something or remember something hard, I kind of involuntarily close my eyes to focus.

[gabecoolwater]

What an interesting question. It would be interesting to link this topic to the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) that happens when we sleep.

[wonderwend]

The lovely Michael. Always a pleasure to listen to. This was an interesting piece

[nunyabitnezz]

I’ve seen people close their eyes completely when trying to remember something.

[xpndblhero]

"They can always call CS-Eye...."
My brain: dun dun dun dun*
🤣

[JoyK]

Ummm...is it just me or does it look like a cockroach outline on the wall between the apple leaves? LOL (1:42)