Reflective lateral eye movements: individual styles, cognitive and lateralization effects.

The direction of gaze shifts following verbal and spatial questions was recorded by direct observation in two separate sessions in 80 right-handed Ss. Ocular events were stable over the sessions, and some Ss were classified reliably as lateral, vertical or bidirectional eye movers. No effect for type of question was found in lateral direction either in the general sample or in the bidirectional sample. Verbal questions elicited more downward movements than spatial questions. Less eye movements were found for spatial and for easy questions. These findings suggest a link between ocular motility and cognition independent of the lateralization issue.