Why do we look up when thinking?

We have seen that most of us look up while thinking. But why? Could not find the answer. Don't look up!

  Neurolinguists(psychologists who do research based on practical application)  have found that most people tend to view life largely through one dominant sense - usually sight, hearing or touching. This sensory orientation also affects the person's choice of words in explaining a thought or feeling.

  People with varying sensory orientation use different verbs & adjectives to describe exactly the same thing.  For example, a hearing oriented person might say,"I hear what you're saying". The visually oriented person might say,"I see what you mean". The touch-dominant person might say,"I feel good about what you're saying". Actually, all 3 of the above quotes meant the same thing "I understand you". 

 Also when finding an answer to question people use one of the 3 dominant senses to seek the solution. For example, if a person is asked to remember a phone number then : One might try to picture an image of number(visual); One might try to remember the sound of the digits(hearing); And the last might try to recall the feel of dialing the number(touch).

 So, thoughts involve creating images, sounds or feelings either remembered from the past or a new thought. Nuerolinguists found that the sensory apparatus of a person can be identified and even whether they were constructing new thoughts or remembering old ones - by observing the eye movements. 

 The eye movements have been codified into seven basic types of eye movements.

 Direction   

                     Up-right                                     visually remembered images

                     Up-left                                        visually constructed new 

                                                                                    images

                     Straight-right                            auditorily remembered

                                                                                  sounds or words

                     Straight-left                               auditorily constructed new

                                                                                sounds or  words

                     Down-right                                auditory sounds or

                                                                              words(often while

                                                                              hearing a  dialogue)

                      Down-left                                  feeling due to touch(which                                                                             includes smell, taste)

                    Straight ahead                           accessing information(often

                   (no movement)                                 visually, also called  

                                                                                      non movement)

You can also try this on your friends, it will surely work. For example, you ask someone to describe his first bicycle you can expect him to look up-right. 

  To get back to the actual imponderable - why do we look up when thinking? The answer is that most of us, a good part of time, try to answer questions by visualizing the answers.