Quiet eyes: Visual gaze stability predicts intra- and interindividual differences in attention control

In the present study, we examined oculomotor dynamics during the completion of three measures of attention control among a large sample of young adults (N = 388). First, we address the ongoing question regarding the coherence of attention control as a cognitive construct. Here, we find that attention control can be measured reliably and is correlated with yet distinct from working memory capacity. Then, we examined fixation stability prior to cue and stimulus onsets in the antisaccade, psychomotor vigilance, and sustained attention to cue tasks. We hypothesized that gaze stability-or quiet eye-would be associated with superior attention control both within and between individuals. In the antisaccade and sustained attention to cue tasks, accurate responses were preceded by a more stable gaze position; in the psychomotor vigilance task, quiet eye was associated with faster responses. Further, in all three tasks, attention performance was correlated with gaze stability across individuals. Finally, individual differences in quiet eye were distinct from individual differences in working memory capacity and self-reported motivation, each of which also accounted for significant variance in attention control. The findings affirm the presence of attention control as a cognitive construct and provide new insight into the mechanisms that underlie intra- and interindividual variability in attention. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).