The Eye Blink as a Physiological Indicator of Cognitive Workload

Abstract

This report explores the hypothesis that eye blinks serve as a sort of “mental punctuation” during completion of a complex task. Specifically, it examines the rates of eye blinks while people are engaged in a complex decision-making task. The data suggest that eye blinks are suppressed while people are engaged in cognitive processing, and that they rebound once that processing has been completed.