Visual Cues – Part 3

Hello readers, by now you must have gained some practice at assessing eye movements. A quick recap is in order:

1. When we are visualizing pictures in our mind our eyes tend to move up to the left or to the right – visual remembered (VR) or visual constructed (VC).{{more}}

2. When we are thinking of sound our eyes move laterally to the left or right -auditory remembered (AR) or auditory constructed (AC).

3. When we are accessing our feelings or talking to ourselves our eyes move down to the left or to the right – auditory digital (AD) or kinesthetic (K).

Remember this is for a right handed person. For a left -handed person the reverse is true.

Sometimes we can use eye patterns to evaluate congruence or truthfulness.

If someone is asked to describe something they have heard or seen, their eyes would most likely move in the direction of “visually or auditory remembered -VR & AR”.

On the other hand, if they are making it up, then their eyes should have the tendency to move in the direction of “visually or auditory constructed -VC and AC”. This may indicate that the person is constructing a part of the condition or situation they are illustrating.

One should be careful in assuming that someone is being untruthful, because you may have asked a question on a topic that the person had never thought of before.

In order to articulate a response, that person may have to listen to or visualize one or more pieces of true information in such a way that they had never done before. In such a case, they would be constructing a response and their eyes would more likely move in the direction of “visually or auditory constructed”.

There are some people whose eyes do not move much. This can happen in cases where people are trying to maintain eye contact in an effort to be polite. Also, if the answer to the question is very well known or it is a recent observation, the person may not need to search their brain’s database for the information and their eyes may not move.

Some people have acquired habitual eye patterns and are more dominant in one or more areas. For example, when dealing with a person who is predominantly right-handed and auditory digital, if you were to ask them, what the colour of their refrigerator is, their eyes would first wander down to their left (auditory digital) before wandering up to their left (visually remembered). This is because, first they would repeat the question and then try to make sense of it (auditory digital), and then finally get the answer (visually remembered).

Similarly, I am right handed and more visually remembered. If you were to ask me the question: What would it feel like to soak in a nice hot bathtub? I would first visualize myself in the bath tub (visually remembered) then access the feeling.

Next week we will conclude the series by discussing our preferred visual styles and how to determine if someone is more visual, auditory, kinesthetic or auditory digital with practical examples.

Have a great week!

Dr Kenneth Onu is a resident Consultant Ophthalmologist at the Beachmont Eye Institute/Eyes R Us Send questions to: Beachmont@gmail.com

Tel: 784 456-1210