Does your mind follow your eyes?

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I found this -

http://bar.psych.ubc.ca/PDF/MRIBK_CNS_2003.pdf

It seems to say that autistics aren't necessarily thinking about what they're looking at, whereas for NT's, whatever they're looking at is what they're thinking about.

I think that's a big source of stress for me - I'm not thinking about what I'm looking at, but I know I'm supposed to be and I try.

How about you?

Yes, it is a problem. "What are you staring at?" is a question I get asked all too often.

looking away helps me listen, not a problem for me, but been perplexing educators for years!


then the studies come....which say....people who look away score higher on tests....of the material covered.


silly silly humans..

I can be watching TV, but not paying any attention to what's going on the screen- my mind wanders so badly.

Actually, that experiment is measuring if people direct attention toward where OTHER people are looking. A face on a computer screen glanced in a particular direction, and then there was also an asterisk ("target") that the subject was supposed to stare at.

When the direction of gaze of the computer's "face" predicted the location of the target (i.e the target appeared on the gazed-at side most of the time), both autistics and typical subjects followed the gaze to help them find the target. On the other hand, when the gaze direction of the face was random with respect to the target's location, the autistics disregarded the face, whereas the typical subjects still followed it.

However, the other phenomenon (not thinking about what you're looking at) is also very true for me sometimes (particularly when what I'm looking at is not interesting).

Yeah I agree with all of you. My mind always doesn't follow what I'm looking at. Just before I typed those words I strechted while I was continuing thinking about what to type next.