Analysis of Eye-Blink Activity while Memorizing Line Drawing of a Face Viewed through a Restricted Visual Field

Abstract

We analyzed the eye-blink activity of a subject while he or she memorized facial images, that were presented in a restricted visual-field environment. Eye-blink activity was observed during two memorizing activities: facial component memorization and full-face memorization. A subject memorized a facial component (eyes, nose, mouth) individually in the former and memorized the whole face in the latter. Blinks frequently occurred when the subject observed facial components during full-face memorization. However, differences in observation area negligibly affected blink-rate during facial component memorization. Moreover, when the subject was allowed to blink during facial component memorization, the restricted visual field moved in slowly and the subject had long fixation pauses. In contrast, this did not occur during facial component memorization when the subject was not allowed to blink.