Eyeblink Rates as a Function of the Interest Value of Video Stimuli

Abstract

On the basis of Hess's study on pupillary responses, the roles of eyeblinkings in the cognitive processes were examined by using two kinds of visual stimuli, i.e., still pictures similar to those of Hess's experiment and video films.The results suggested that eyeblink rates were not sensitive to the stills but were remarkably influenced by the video scenes.The magnitude of change of frequency seemed to depend on the interest value of video stimuli.The positive values tended to suppress blink rates and the negative one tended to increase them.