When we engage in internally directed cognition (e.g., planning or imagination), our eye behavior decouples from external stimuli and couples to internal representations (e.g., internal visualizations of ideas). Here, we investigated whether eye behavior predicts the susceptibility to visual distraction during internally directed cognition. To this end, participants performed a divergent thinking task, which required internally directed attention, and we measured distraction in terms of attention capture by unrelated images. We used multilevel mixed models to predict visual distraction by eye behavior right before distractor onset. In Study 1 (N = 38), visual distraction was predicted by increased saccade and blink rate, and higher pupil dilation. We replicated these findings in Study 2 using the same task, but with less predictable distractor onsets and a larger sample (N = 144). We also explored whether individual differences in susceptibility to visual distraction were related to cognitive ability and task performance. Taken together, variation in eye behavior was found to be a consistent predictor of visual distraction during internally directed cognition. This highlights the relevance of eye parameters as objective indicators of internal versus external attentional focus and distractibility during complex mental tasks.

当我们进行内部定向认知（例如，计划或想象）时，我们的眼睛行为与外部刺激脱钩，并与内部表征（例如，想法的内部可视化）耦合。在这里，我们研究了眼睛行为是否可以预测内部定向认知过程中对视觉干扰的敏感性。为此，参与者执行了发散思维任务，这需要内部定向注意力，并且我们通过不相关图像捕获注意力来测量分心情况。我们使用多级混合模型来预测干扰发生前眼睛行为引起的视觉干扰。在研究 1 ( N = 38) 中，通过扫视和眨眼频率增加以及瞳孔扩张程度增加来预测视觉分散。我们使用相同的任务在研究 2 中复制了这些发现，但干扰源的出现不太可预测，并且样本更大 ( N = 144)。我们还探讨了视觉干扰易感性的个体差异是否与认知能力和任务表现有关。总的来说，眼睛行为的变化被发现是内部定向认知过程中视觉干扰的一致预测因素。这凸显了眼睛参数作为复杂心理任务期间内部与外部注意力集中和注意力分散的客观指标的相关性。