© Lesley Hunter (2008) Practical NLP Factsheet Series

EYE ACCESSING CUES

A person’s eye movementsreflect and indicate their internal information processing.

There is a standard convention but this only holds true for around 50% of the population.It is therefore essential to ask questions and ‘calibrate’ other people at the earliest opportunity during your interaction.

Assuming you are looking at the other person and observe their eyes moving in the followingdirections.

VISUAL VISUALConstruct Recall

AUDITORY AUDITORYConstruct Recall

INTERNALKINAESTHETIC DIALOGUE

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The person is likely to be recalling a mental image to represent what they are thinking. Forinstance, when asked “How many radiators are there in your house?” they might create a picture of the house and carry out a ‘walk through’ in their head creating visual representations of each room as they do this to count the radiators.

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The person is likely to be creating (constructing) a mental image to represent what they arethinking. For instance, when asked to spell a word (eg. abracadabra) they might literallycreate the word by mentally writing the letters in sequence as they spell it.

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The person is likely to be recalling a sound that represents what they are thinking. Forinstance, when asked “What does your mobile ringtone sound like?” they might actually create the tone inside their head and hear it.

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The person is likely to be creating (constructing) a sound that represents what they arethinking.

© Lesley Hunter (2008) Practical NLP Factsheet Series

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The person is likely to be having some dialogue with themself inside their head (i.e. they aretalking to themself). Quite often a person’s eyes will flicker between this position and visual or auditory access points, which can lead to some rapid and apparently random eyemovements as they move through their internal conversation.

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The person is likely to be recalling how an experience felt –they are recalling an emotionthat represents what they are thinking.

This is the typical eye accessing cues model that is taught on NLP training courses. Howeverit is simplistic and does not fully represent the complexities of the internal processing andsearching strategies taking place. Remember it is therefore essential to ‘callibrate’ each individual in order to recognise their typical eye movement patterns.

Some of the anomalies that may occur include:

Eyes go to the opposite side from the photograph - the person may have a left-handedpreference.

Eyes consistently go to one location first and then off to the others –the person has avery strong lead preference that they need to access before they can understand whatyou ask.

Eyes consistently do not go to one particular location at all –the person may haveblocked visual, auditory or feelings and so avoid that place.

Eyes go to atypical locations – the person may look up and say, “I feel…” - this is aspecific type of pattern.

Eyes do not seem to move at all –this means there is immediate access and no internalsearch is necessary. Alternatively, they may not have heard or understood what youhave said (‘goes blank’).

Eyes moves back and forth –the person is searching or scanning or they may becomparing two images.

Eyes seem to go all over the place –this may indicate confusion or an agitated internalstate.

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Factsheet #1 Introduction to NLPFactsheet #2 Principles of NLP and our map of realityFactsheet #3 Developing sensory acuity and rapport (mirroring and matching)Factsheet #4 Representational systemsFactsheet #5 Eye accessing cuesFactsheet #6 Language patterns –sensory language and submodalitiesFactsheet #7 Language patterns - Milton modelFactsheet #8 Language patterns –Meta modelFactsheet #9 Setting well formed outcomesFactsheet #10 What makes people tick? Motivational strategies