Previous investigators have inferred that increased rate of eyemovement was due to increased attention or increased rate of change in thought content. Studies testing one position were interpretable in terms of the other. This study was carried out to end this methodological confound. Two groups (n = 12) at normal and high attention performed mental tasks involving both a low and a high rate of change of thought content. The results indicated that increased rate of eyemovement occurred with an increase in attention regardless of rate of change of thought content and with an increase in rate of change of thought content only when the attention level was high.
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