Oculesics Assignment
Start a conversation with a friend, dating partner, family member, or roommate about any topic
you want. A good way to do this is to begin the conversation with an open-ended question (e.g.,
what do you think about…?). Carefully observe his or her eye behavior during the entire
conversation, and write your paper immediately after the conversation. Describe the following in
your report:
(1) What was the topic of conversation? For how many minutes did it last?
(2) Describe the context of the conversation (location, physical ambiance, time of day, other
events occurring at the same time).
(3) Make a mental note of the amount of time that the person looks at you during the
conversation. For how long did the person look at you (total number of estimated
seconds)? What is your estimation of the person’s visual dominance/ratio? What do you
think this means about your relationship with the person?
For the next two items, it is important that you be very detailed in your description, so pay
close attention when you have the conversation. In addition, I will be looking for your
explanations to be supported by the textbook and the lecture.
(4) What types of eye behaviors did the other person prominently display during the
conversation? Why do you think the person displayed these particular behaviors?
(5) What patterns of eye contact did you observe in the conversation? That is, at what points
of the conversation did the person tend to look at you and when did the person tend to
look away? At what points of the conversation did you look at the person? At what points
did you look away? Explain why you think you and your conversational partner looked at
each other at some points of the conversation and looked away at others? Again, be sure
to support your explanation with evidence from the lectures and textbook.
(6) Given what you have learned in this class so far, what are the best explanations for the
eye-gaze patterns that you noticed in this conversation? Draw your explanations from
theories and research findings discussed in your book or those discussed in the lecture.
(7) Conclude with a summary of your thoughts about the functions and role(s) of eye
behaviors in everyday interaction.