ABSTRACT

This chapter presents evidence that major contributions to blink rate are made by cognitive and affective variables. It demonstrates that aspects of blinking other than rate, such as blink timing and blink closure duration, provide additional information about aspects of cognition and affect. The voluntary eye blink occurs in response to instruction, the instruction can come from another person in the form of a direct command to blink or it can be self-instructed. One can identify three types of blinks: reflex blinks, instructed blinks, and spontaneous blinks. The no significant effect for visual stimulus presentation is rationalized in terms of a competition between blink suppression associated with attending to important stimuli and to an increase in blinking associated with tension release. The basis for manipulating muscle tension was an influential paper by D. R. Meyer. Eye blinks were evaluated from videotapes with blinks counted for the first 3 minutes of the “threat” interview.