Eyes and Mental Overload

I attended a training recently where it involves a lot of drawings (technical ones) and logics. The trainer was very good as he explained most concepts and misunderstandings with examples and drawings. After answering rows of difficult questions he said, “Good questions. When I closed my eyes while you guys were asking, not because I was saying ‘Oh god!’, but I was trying to listen to your question.” Roughly those were his words.

I think what he meant was don’t take it wrongly, as in that he was exasperated and closing his eyes, but actually he was trying to focus when the trainees were asking a question. I also think he was trying to recall or imagine the drawings related to the question, as he normally begins to draw after he opens his eyes.

I tend to look upwards when thinking or recalling difficult things too. I don’t know about other people but I don’t ‘see’ the diagram or problem that I want to solve, but it helps in not having to focus my view. I don’t close my eyes though as that doesn’t seem to help.

Some people I noticed do the same, and they tend to look at a slightly same upwards direction. Maybe there’s a study about this but I haven’t looked into it. But I noticed the most unnerving ‘technique’ that some people do is they stare right at you while trying to recall something. It also makes you feel like you have to help them come up with the answer too. 😅

In all cases above, I think that our cognitive abilities are at limited capacity. Once we try to exert by recalling or synthesising an answer, our brain is overloaded and to stop that, we reduce inputs from our senses. That’s my theory at least (and also presented in movies where the blinded hero can focus on his hearing and wins the fight).

Not sure what use this is for anyone but I thought it was interesting and decided to write it down.

Thank you for reading.