The prenatal motor ability for involuntary stimulus-directed eye movement forms the physiological prerequisite for the development of our spatial-visual brain functions. The arbitrary movements, on the other hand, refer to the level of knowledge already acquired. This shows a parallel to our hand movements, which change from reflexive twitching to targeted grasping movements. Eye and hand movements form a synergetic instrument for the process of cognition and understanding, as we grasp with our hands what we simultaneously perceive with our eyes. The ambiguity of sensory experiences creates an associative link between our sensations of touch, colour and light in our memory, which gradually shapes and materializes the world of appearances.
For reasons of efficiency, we increasingly use our eye movements to scan the color and light structures of the environment that are already meaningful to us. Our eye movements “draw” the train of thought and show our interest in the surrounding situation. An aimlessly wandering gaze, on the other hand, testifies to our lack of interest in the external perceptual space. As soon as our attention is focused on the mental passage through our inner imaginary space, our gaze appears empty and absent. Eye movements can be understood as a vivid form of reading competence, as we use the spatial-visual sign structure of the environment to understand meanings, behavioral states and action contexts.
Both when reading and when looking at things, our eyes linger for a fraction of a second on the meaningful signs we already recognize before they jump to the next event. The places where our gaze lingers for an unusually long time, as well as the traces we draw with our eye movements, give other people an insight into our thoughts and feelings. Even some of our intentions can be judged by others with some experience from our anticipatory gaze, which we use to mentally anticipate our actions before they are carried out.
