Eye Accessing Cues is eye movements that loosely correlate with which representational system is active — visual, auditory, kinesthetic. It sits in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-COG-0290, within the Cognition family. The core principle: eye movements that loosely correlate with which representational system is active — visual, auditory, kinesthetic. In incentive terms, it matters because it changes the payoff people perceive before they choose — which means it can be designed for, or exploited.
Scientific Definition
Eye movements that loosely correlate with which representational system is active — visual, auditory, kinesthetic.
Plain-English Definition
Eye movements that loosely correlate with which representational system is active — visual, auditory, kinesthetic.
Feynman Explanation
The model is leakier than NLP claims and tighter than skeptics admit. Useful, not gospel.
Core Principle
Eye movements that loosely correlate with which representational system is active — visual, auditory, kinesthetic.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Eye movements that loosely correlate with which representational system is active — visual, auditory, kinesthetic.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Coaching, interviewing — as one signal among many, never alone.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
The model is leakier than NLP claims and tighter than skeptics admit. Useful, not gospel.
Examples
- Bandler & Grinder, 1970s; mixed empirical support.
- Coaching, interviewing — as one signal among many, never alone.
Pending editorial review.
Original analysis from The Incentives Lab — how this element behaves inside real payoff structures.
Why this element matters to incentive design
This is one of the elements leaders describe as a values gap. It is a payoff gap. The mechanism underneath it is straightforward: eye movements that loosely correlate with which representational system is active — visual, auditory, kinesthetic. You can recognize it in the field by its signature: the model is leakier than NLP claims and tighter than skeptics admit. Useful, not gospel. Every element in the Cognition dimension changes the perceived payoff of an action before the action happens, which is exactly where incentive design has leverage.
How it gets exploited
Left undesigned, coaching, interviewing — as one signal among many, never alone. It is amplified whenever coaching, interviewing — as one signal among many, never alone. Inside organizations that shows up as coaching, interviewing — as one signal among many, never alone. The pattern is the same one Goodhart's Law describes: the measurable proxy attracts the effort, and the purpose behind it quietly loses funding.
How the Lab designs around it
The redesign move is to treat as a hypothesis, not a diagnosis. Always corroborate with content and calibration. Design against it the way you would design against a known failure mode — assume it will appear, and price the exploit before someone finds it.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Treat as a hypothesis, not a diagnosis. Always corroborate with content and calibration.
Measurement Approaches
Pending editorial review.
Evidence
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Treat as a hypothesis, not a diagnosis. Always corroborate with content and calibration.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Interactive Mini Network
Click any neighbor to re-center the graph and follow the threads of connection.
Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
Reading micro-shifts in another person's state — breath, color, micro-expression — in real time.
Tools, notebooks, and trusted others are literally part of your cognitive system — not just aids to it.
The sense of the internal state of the body — heartbeat, hunger, tension.
Brain region for planning, impulse control, and executive function.
The sense of where the body is in space.
Changing the meaning of an experience by changing the frame around it.
The fine-grained sensory qualities of internal experience — brightness, distance, volume, location.
The conditions under which a target accepts an influence attempt without scrutiny.
A controlled scenario, often impossible, used to isolate a variable and test an intuition or theory.
What we wear influences how we think and perform.
How will I feel about this in 10 minutes / 10 months / 10 years?
Basics first (health/finances), then depth (mastery/impact), then altruism (widening circle).
Where Eye Accessing Cues is cited in the corpus
Essays, field guides, and diagnostics from The Incentives Lab that apply this element.
- EssayGoodhart's Law in the Real World
How measurable proxies capture judgment.
- EssayThe Perverse Incentives Hiding in Your KPIs
Cognitive shortcuts turned into scorecards.
- EssayAI Agents Inherit Your Incentives
How this element propagates into automated systems.
- ReferenceThe Periodic Table of Human Behavior
The full 1,267-element map this page belongs to.
- ReferenceThe incentive glossary
Definitions for every mental model, bias, and fallacy in the corpus.
Questions about Eye Accessing Cues
- What is Eye Accessing Cues?
- Eye Accessing Cues is eye movements that loosely correlate with which representational system is active — visual, auditory, kinesthetic. It sits in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-COG-0290, within the Cognition family. The core principle: eye movements that loosely correlate with which representational system is active — visual, auditory, kinesthetic. In incentive terms, it matters because it changes the payoff people perceive before they choose — which means it can be designed for, or exploited.
- What is an example of Eye Accessing Cues?
- Coaching, interviewing — as one signal among many, never alone. The Incentives Lab catalogs everyday, organizational, and historical instances of this element on its Human Behavior Taxonomy™ page (HBT-COG-0290).
- How is Eye Accessing Cues exploited?
- Coaching, interviewing — as one signal among many, never alone.
- How do you design around Eye Accessing Cues?
- Treat as a hypothesis, not a diagnosis. Always corroborate with content and calibration.
- Which behavioral dimension does Eye Accessing Cues belong to?
- Eye Accessing Cues is classified in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™, family "Cognition", class "Mental Model". Its permanent identifier is HBT-COG-0290 and its evidence grade is B.