The effect cognitive load has on eye blinking

Abstract

The present study investigates the theory that blink rate decreases as cognitive load increases. 30 subjects participated in one of two experiments, containing four conditions: Condition A involved four blank screens, B was the presentation of one object, C involved the presentation of 24 household objects paired with congruent audio files and D was similar but objects were paired with incongruent audio files. Experiment two differed from experiment one by including longer audio files. The results were that blink rate significantly differed across the conditions in both experiments, p<.05. Condition A produced a significantly higher blink rate in both experiments, p<.05. Findings showed that manipulation of the lowest cognitive load produced the highest blink rate which supports existing research.