Why do we move our eyes while trying to remember? The relationship between non-visual gaze patterns and memory.

Non-visual gaze patterns (NVGPs) involve saccades and fixations that spontaneously occur in cognitive activities that are not ostensibly visual. While reasons for their appearance remain obscure, convergent empirical evidence suggests that NVGPs change according to processing requirements of tasks. We examined NVPGs in tasks with long-term memory (LTM) and working memory (WM) requirements.

Looking for answers: eye movements in non-visual cognitive tasks.

It is not known why people move their eyes when engaged in non-visual cognition. The current study tested the hypothesis that differences in saccadic eye movement rate (EMR) during non-visual cognitive tasks reflect different requirements for searching long-term memory. Participants performed non-visual tasks requiring relatively low or high long-term memory retrieval while eye movements were recorded.

Psychomotor slowing as a predictor of fluoxetine nonresponse in depressed outpatients.

Objective: This study examined the utility of baseline psychomotor speed, measured with neuropsychological tests, to predict fluoxetine response in moderately depressed outpatients. The authors hypothesized that since psychomotor slowing in depressed patients has been linked to reduced dopaminergic neurotransmission, patients with slowing would be unresponsive to fluoxetine, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor.

Method: After baseline neuropsychological testing, patients were treated openly with fluoxetine for 12 weeks.

Interpersonal Gaze and Helping Behavior.

A field experiment was conducted assessing the effects of interpersonal gaze upon helping behavior. Three hundred twenty men and women were approached by a male or female confederate with his arm in a sling who, upon dropping some coins, either looked or did not look at the bystander. The results indicated that gaze was associated with increased helping when both victim and bystander were female and decreased helping when the two were males.