Direction of lateral eye movements as an index of cognitive mode and emotion: a reappraisal

Three experiments were designed to determine the effects of cognitive and emotional questions on subjective ratings, lateral eye movement (LEM) incidence and LEM direction. Although the cognitive content of questions affected subjective ratings and the incidence of LEMs, emotional content had an effect only on subjective ratings. Neither cognitive nor emotional content influenced LEM direction. The results raise doubts about the sensitivity of LEM direction as an index of lateralized cerebral processing.