We can detect what representational systems a person is using by noticing their patterns of eye movements.
If I ask you to visualize the face of a schoolteacher, as far back as you can remember, you will probably look slightly up and to your left. If I ask you to remember his or her voice, or perhaps the sound of the bell or buzzer signaling the end of class, you will probably move your eyes to the left, but not up or down. But if you are asked to remember the feeling of the surface of your school desk, or the feel of soap in your hand in the school washroom, or any other past kinesthetic experience, you will probably, without being aware of it, look down and to your right.
The diagram below shows what these eye movements look like if you are facing the person. The patterns may be reversed for left-handed people, who may look right for remembered images and sounds, and left for constructed images and sounds. Note that eye accessing cues will be consistent for a person even if they do not follow this diagram. For example, a left-handed person may look down to his right for internal dialogue and down to his left for feelings.
What ever the person does it will be consistent for that person and not just a mix of random movements. All this is to do with accessing different parts of the brain when we think. It is well researched and is referred to as ‘lateral eye movements’ in neurological literature. In NLP these eye movements are known as ‘eye accessing cues’.
Other non-verbal cues
A persons who thinks visually will usually speak quickly, with the head up, and using a higher pitch than an auditory person, who will tend to breathe and speak in a more rhythmic, clear and resonant tone.
People who are ‘talking to themselves’ are likely to lean their heads to one side, in a typical listening position - as if holding a telephone conversation.
A kinesthetic person is likely to speak in a slow, deeper tone, relaxed and with the head down. Although these ‘rules’ may not always hold true, as you start observing people and matching what they say to their posture and tone of voice, you will see just how often these mannerisms are apparent. So, as well as verbal cues, or predicates, there are also physiological, or body language cues to thinking. The mind and body are parts of the same system and affect each other.
