Hmm, Let Me Think...

[stoutfellow]

In a discussion of body language on Language Log, David Nash is quoted as saying that "My off the cuff reaction is that flicking the eyes up and to the right like this feels like a help to memory retrieval".

When I'm trying to remember something, I look up and to the left; looking right feels very odd to me.

Am I weird or something? What do you do?

Comments

Tilt

[p-o-u-n-c-e-r.livejournal.com]

Here, p alone is memory. Tilt alone is cogitation. Up/tilt is retro-cogitation -- "now what would I have done with my keys yesterday when I had my hands full of grocery bags? "

Interesting to watch dogs, birds, etc use head tilt without eyes up.
Very short term memory among the lower orders. "I will figure this situation out. But I won't even bother retrieving experience of similar situations..."

I'm not at all sure left or right tilt is significant.

All three of my kids combine eye roll with spinning in circles -- as if the answer might be an image on the ceiling with the projector whirling along on a record turntable...