David Gamon

Looking Left, Thinking Right ?

If you want a sure-fire conversation starter to pull out of your pocket during an awkward social moment, try this: Why do people often look sideways when they're answering a question? And why do they sometimes look right, and other times look left?

A few researchers in the 1970s thought they had found answers to

these questions. A psychologist named Paul Bakan proposed that different

kinds of thinking could automatically trigger lateral eye movements

(LEMs), when activity in one of the brain hemispheres spread into

the "eye fields" on that side of the brain. The eye field

on the right side of the brain is linked to the left field of vision,

and controls eye movement to the left, while the left-brain eye

field connects to the right field of vision and controls rightward

LEMs.

The logical next question: Does the direction of gaze reflect the

type of question a person is trying to answer? Maybe answers requiring

"right-brain" thinking, such as visualizing the layout

of the rooms in a house, might make people look to the left; "left-brain"

thinking, such as thinking about the meaning of the word cachinnate,

might trigger a rightward LEM.

A lot of researchers have tried to test that hypothesis. The idea

is simple. It's also appealing because it suggests certain handy

applications. Might you, for example, have an easier time visualizing

the answer to a geometry problem (right brain) by looking left,

or thinking of the French words for woof and warp (left brain) by

looking right? Or might some people habitually prefer to look left

or right, reflecting their preferred "left-brain" or "right-brain"

cognitive style?

The results of those investigations were mixed. But a clear pattern

that did emerge was that harder questions were more likely to result

in LEMs, whether rightward or leftward. In other words, even if

LEMs don't reflect the "left-brain" or "right-brain"

nature of the question, they do reflect the problem's difficulty.

That seems intuitive. But why?

The reason is probably the same as the reason people generally

find it hard to do two things at once, or the reason that it's hard

to concentrate on a book if someone's talking. Averting your gaze

allows you to cut yourself off from a particularly attention-getting

and distracting environmental stimulus - the questioner's face -

in order to focus on the answer to the question. The reason your

pet cat doesn't do that is that, for her, memory and thought are

more exclusively triggered by what's in front of her eyes, nose,

or ears. Sometimes, that's true for humans too, such as when you

try to remember the name of a type of tree you see. But often, we

operate in a world of introspection that isn't directly environmentally-cued

or -controlled.

Recent experiments have added a twist: If you somehow prevent people

from averting their gaze, they have a harder time answering a question.

So it turns out that LEMs do, indeed, serve to help to answer a

question, although not necessarily in the same way that people first

thought.

You can test Bakan's original theory on your friends by asking

them "left-brain" and "right-brain" questions,

and watching which direction, if any, their eyes go. Usually, visual

thinking is considered right-hemisphere-controlled, while verbal

(i.e., language-based) thinking is considered to be controlled by

the left hemisphere. (If you really want to irritate your friends,

say, "Aha! I thought so!" as you watch them, and when

they ask you what you're talking about say, "Oh, nothing, just

some routine observations....")

And you can test the idea that more difficult questions are more

likely to trigger LEMs by asking the questions on the following

pages. They increase in difficulty, making it more and more likely,

in theory, that the person trying to answer them will look to the

side while thinking. In the answer section, the number accompanying

each answer indicates the percentage of college students who were

able to answer that question correctly.

References and further reading

Bakan, Paul (1969). Hypnotizability, laterality of eye movements

and functional brain asymmetry. Perceptual and Motor Skills 28:

927-32.

De Gennaro, Luigi, and Cristiano Violaniu (1988). Reflective lateral

eye movements: individual styles, cognitive and lateralization effects.

Neuropsychologia 26/5: 727-36.

Glenberg, Arthur M., Jennifer L. Schroeder, and David A. Robertson

(1998). Averting the gaze disengages the environment and facilitates

remembering. Memory & Cognition 26/4: 651-8.

Memory Test

In 1980, two psychologists at the University of Washington and

University of California, Irvine, compiled a list of general-knowledge

questions and posed them to their undergraduate students in order

to get scoring norms. In other words, they wanted to get an idea

about how a person with a "normal" memory would perform

on this memory task, so that the questions could be used to test

other people’s memory. These questions start out easy, but

get harder as you go along. The number next to each answer shows

the percent of college students who answered that question correctly.

If you can answer more than 20, that puts you in the top third of

the sample of college students the questions were tested on.

1. What’s the name of the comic strip character who eats spinach

to increase his strength?

2. What’s the last name of the brothers who flew the first

airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina?

3. What’s the name of the crime of purposely setting a building

or property on fire?

4. What’s the name of Dorothy’s dog in "The Wizard

of Oz"?

5. What’s the name of the man who rode horseback in 1775 to

warn that the British were coming?

6. What’s the last name of the famous magician and escape artist

who died of appendicitis?

7. What’s the name of the thick layer of fat on a whale?

8. What’s the name of the sport in which riders on horseback

hit a ball with their mallets?

9. What’s the name of the largest desert on earth?

10. What’s the name of the Italian city known for its canals?

11. What’s the name of the mythical Island-City said to have

sunk into the ocean?

12. What’s the name for the small Japanese barbecue used for

outdoor cooking?

13. What’s the name of the one-eyed giant in Greek mythology?

14. What’s the last name of the general who lost the battle

of Little Bighorn?

15. What’s the name of the chapel in Rome whose ceiling was

painted by Michelangelo?

16. What’s the name of the unit of measure referring to a six-foot

depth of water?

17. What’s the name of the woman who began the profession of

nursing?

18. What’s the name of the quick-reflexed animal that attacks

cobras?

19. What was the name of Roy Rogers’ horse?

20. What’s the last name of the author of "1984"?

21. What was the name of the Roman emperor who supposedly fiddled

while Rome burned?

22. What kind of poison did Socrates drink when he was executed?

23. What was the name of Alexander Graham Bell’s assistant?

24. What was the name of the German who began the Protestant Reformation?

25. What was the name of King Arthur’s sword?

26. What was the name of the ship on which Charles Darwin made his

famous voyage to the Galapagos?

27. What’s the capital of Finland?

28. What’s the name of the mountain range separating Asia from

Europe?

29. What’s the name of the first person to run the mile in

under four minutes?

30. What was the name of the Cuban leader overthrown by Castro?

31. What was the last name of the artist who painted "American

Gothic"?

32. What was the name of the town through which Lady Godiva supposedly

made her famous naked ride?

33. What’s the name of the highest mountain in South America?

Answers:

1. What’s the name of the comic strip character who eats spinach

to increase his strength? Popeye (94%)

2. What’s the last name of the brothers who flew the first

airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina? Wright (92%)

3. What’s the name of the crime of purposely setting a building

or property on fire? Arson (88%)

4. What’s the name of Dorothy’s dog in "The Wizard

of Oz"? Toto (84%)

5. What’s the name of the man who rode horseback in 1775 to

warn that the British were coming? Paul Revere (82%)

6. What’s the last name of the famous magician and escape artist

who died of appendicitis? Houdini (80%)

7. What’s the name of the thick layer of fat on a whale? Blubber

(77%)

8. What’s the name of the sport in which riders on horseback

hit a ball with their mallets? Polo (75%)

9. What’s the name of the largest desert on earth? Sahara (70%)

10. What’s the name of the Italian city known for its canals?

Venice (68%)

11. What’s the name of the mythical Island-City said to have

sunk into the ocean? Atlantis (65%)

12. What’s the name for the small Japanese barbecue used for

outdoor cooking? Hibachi (62%)

13. What’s the name of the one-eyed giant in Greek mythology?

Cyclops (60%)

14. What’s the last name of the general who lost the battle

of Little Bighorn? Custer (58%)

15. What’s the name of the chapel in Rome whose ceiling was

painted by Michelangelo? Sistine (55%)

16. What’s the name of the unit of measure referring to a six-foot

depth of water? Fathom (52%)

17. What’s the name of the woman who began the profession of

nursing? Florence Nightingale (47%)

18. What’s the name of the quick-reflexed animal that attacks

cobras? Mongoose (41%)

19. What was the name of Roy Rogers’ horse? Trigger (37%)

20. What’s the last name of the author of "1984"?

Orwell (33%)

21. What was the name of the Roman emperor who supposedly fiddled

while Rome burned? Nero (31%)

22. What kind of poison did Socrates drink when he was executed?

Hemlock (25%)

23. What was the name of Alexander Graham Bell’s assistant?

Watson (22%)

24. What was the name of the German who began the Protestant Reformation?

Martin Luther (20%)

25. What was the name of King Arthur’s sword? Excalibur (19%)

26. What was the name of the ship on which Charles Darwin made his

famous voyage to the Galapagos? Beagle (14%)

27. What’s the capital of Finland? Helsinki (12%)

28. What’s the name of the mountain range separating Asia from

Europe? Ural (9%)

29. What’s the name of the first person to run the mile in

under four minutes? Bannister (7%)

30. What was the name of the Cuban leader overthrown by Castro?

Batista (4%)

31. What was the last name of the artist who painted "American

Gothic"? Wood (3%)

32. What was the name of the town through which Lady Godiva supposedly

made her famous naked ride? Coventry (1%)

33. What’s the name of the highest mountain in South America?

Aconcagua (0%)

- September 2005

About the Author

David Gamon has a PhD in cognitive science and is an author based in the US