In sci.psychology, article <ken.boff-131293104309@lyman-193.gatech.edu>
> ken.boff@business.gatech.edu (Ken Boff) writes:
>>I've recently been reading ``Neuro-Linguistic Programming: Vol 1.'' by
>>Dilts, Grinder, Bandler, et al. The authors make many claims about
>>interpreting internal thought processess based on eye movements,
>>breathing patters, etc.

I have found it extremely interesting that at least some of the earliest and best known observations of the NLP advocates turned out later to have neurologically plausible aspects. It seems to me that this kind of interdisciplinary observation might have some grand potential.

Among the best studied of these is the idea of lateral eye movements being related to (whatever).

This oft-quoted observation in NLP literature had two parts :

1. The relation of eye movement to sensory modality or 'representational system,' (e.g. visual, auditory, kinesthetic)

2. The relation of eye movement to cognitive style (e.g. 'constructed' images vs. 'recalled' images, etc., in the NLP literature).

Eye movement does appear to relate to cognitive style, though it is not entirely clear yet exactly how (or even whether) it might relate to sensory modality.

I've included a fairly extensive list of refs from my files to illustrate how seriously this particular idea is taken, though not as any indication of NLP itself. This literature has nothing directly to do with NLP, it mostly has to do with the research into how eye movements relate to hemisphere asymmetry and cognitive style and the implications for learning.

Perhaps an NLP maven could review some of these and explain how this research might apply (or not) onto their notion of representational systems ?

Happy reading !! ============================================================================

Breitling, D., & Bonnet, K. (1985). Lateralization of GSR, lateral eye movements and a visual half-fields recognition task. International Journal of Clinical Neuropsychology, 7, 140-143

Bruce, P. R., Herman, J. F., & Stern, J. (1982). Lateral eye movements and the recall of spatial information in a familiar, large-scale environment. Neuropsychologica, 20, 505-508.

Coleman, S. & Zenhausern, R. (1979) Processing speed, laterality patterns, and memory encoding as a function of hemispheric dominance. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 14, 357-360.

Day, M. E. (1967) An eye-movement indicator of individual differences in the psychological organization of attentional process and anxiety. Journal of Psychology, 66, 51-62.

Ehrlichman, H., & Weinberger, A. (1978) Lateral eye movements and hemispheric asymmetry: A critical review. Psychological Bulletin, 86, 1080-1101.

Falcone, D. J., & Loder, K. (1984). A modified lateral eye movement measure, the right hemisphere, and creativity. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 58, 823-830.

Gur, R. E., & Gur, R. C. (1975). Defense mechanisms, psychosomatic symptomatology, and conjugate lateral eye movements. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 43, 416-420.

Gur, R.E., Gur, R.C., & Harris (1975) Cerebral activation, as measured by subjects' lateral eye movements is influenced by experimenter location. Neuropsychologia, 13, 35-44.

Huang, M. S., & Byrne, B. (1978). Cognitive style and lateral eye movements. British Journal of Psychology, 69, 85-90.

Hugdahl, K., & Carlgren, H. E. (1981). Hemispheric asymmetry as indexed by differences in direction of initial conjugate lateral eye movements (CLEMS) in response to verbal, spatial, and emotional tasks. Journal of Mind and Behavior 2, 259-270.

Jamieson, J. L., & Sellick, T. B. (1985) Effects of subject-to- experimenter distance and instructions on lateral eye movement. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 60, 155-159.

Kinsbourne, M. (1972) Eye and head turning indicate cerebral lateralization. Science, 176, 539-541.

Leboeuf, A., McKay, P., & Clarke, K. (1983). Lateral eye movements and dream recall in males: a reappraisal. Imagination, Cognition, and Personality, 3, 61-68.

Lenhart, R. E. (1985) The effects of distance between interactants and subject anxiety on conjugate lateral eye movements. Brain and Cognition, 4(3), 328-337.

Ogorman, J. & Siddle, D. (1981). The effects of question type and experimenter position on bilateral differences in electrodermal activity and conjugate lateral eye movements. Acta Psychologica, 49, 43-51.

Owens, W., & Limber, J. (1983). Lateral eye movement as a measure of cognitive ability and style. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 56, 711-719.

Parrott, C. A. (1983). Personality characteristics associated with lateral eye movement patterns. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 58, 867-874.

Swinnen, S. (1984). Some evidence for the hemispheric asymmetry model of lateral eye movements. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 58, 79-88.

Thompson, M., Greenberg, R. P., & Fisher, S. (1982). Defense mechanisms, somatic symptoms, and lateral eye movements in females. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 55, 939-942.

Tucker, G. H., & Suib, M. R. (1978). Conjugate lateral eye movement (CLEM) direction and its relationship to performance on verbal and visuospatial tasks. Neuropsychologica, 16, 251-254

Van Nuys, D. (1985) Lateral eye movement and dream recall: II sex differences and handedness. International Journal of Psychosomatics, 31, 3-7.

Weiten, W., & Etaugh, C. F. (1974) Lateral eye movement as related to verbal and perceptual-motor skills and values. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 36, 423-428.

kind regards,

todd