Eye movements reveal memory processes during similarity- and rule-based decision making

Abstract

Recent research suggests that when people retrieve information from memory they tend to fixate on the location where the information had appeared during encoding. We used this phenomenon to investigate if different information is activated in memory when people use a rule- versus a similarity-based decision strategy. In two studies, participants first memorized multiple pieces of information about various job candidates (exemplars). In subsequent test trials they judged the suitability of new candidates that varied in their similarity to the previously learned exemplars. Results show that when using similarity, but not when using a rule, participants fixated longer on the previous location of exemplars that resembled the new candidates than on the location of dissimilar exemplars. This suggests that people using similarity retrieve previously learned exemplars, whereas people using a rule do not. The study illustrates that eye movements can provide new insights into the memory processes underlying decision making.

Evaluating Scientists as Sources of Science Information: Evidence From Eye Movements

“…This phenomenon in which individuals, while retrieving information from memory, gaze back at spatial locations previously associated with that information (during encoding) has been observed by other studies across different contexts and domains (Johansson & Johansson, 2014;Platzer, Bröder, & Heck, 2014;Renkewitz & Jahn, 2012;Scholz, Mehlhorn, & Krems, 2016;Scholz, von Helversen, & Rieskamp, 2015;Spivey & Geng, 2001). Collectively, these studies suggest that eye movements can be used as a measure of memory retrieval without the need for self-report responses.…”

How Information Availability Interacts with Visual Attention during Judgment and Decision Tasks

“…For instance, participants who first encode an arrangement of objects and are later asked to recall aspects of that arrangement while looking at a blank screen will spontaneously execute eye movements "to nothing" on the blank screen, which largely correspond to the original object arrangement (e.g., Altman, 2004;Johansson & Johansson, 2014;Spivey & Geng, 2001). Research using such a blank-screen design has demonstrated that eye-movement patterns typical of various decision making strategies remain when decisionrelevant information is removed from the display and the decision is made strictly from memory (Jahn & Braatz, 2014;Renkewitz & Jahn, 2012;Scholz, von Helversen, & Rieskamp, 2015). In addition, compatibility of gaze positions between encoding and retrieval can increase the likelihood of successful remembering (Johansson & Johansson, 2014) and may trigger other associated memories (Platzer, Bröder, & Heck, 2014).…”

Watching diagnoses develop: Eye movements reveal symptom processing during diagnostic reasoning

“…Observing such processes directly had not been done before, because methods were missing that could reveal the changing activation status of hypotheses over the course of a reasoning trial. We tested coherence maximization during diagnostic reasoning using memory indexing-a new method that is based on observing eye movements while participants solve memory-based, higher level cognitive tasks (Jahn & Braatz, 2014;Renkewitz & Jahn, 2010Scholz et al, 2015). This study provides evidence that eye movements reflect the tendency to maximize coherence in diagnostic reasoning.…”

“…If eye movements can trace coherence maximization during sequential diagnostic reasoning, eye movements during later symptom presentations should reveal the integration of symptom information (see Renkewitz & Jahn, 2012;Jahn & Braatz, 2014;Scholz et al, 2015). For instance, if a later symptom supports two alternatives, gaze duration should be longer toward the leading hypothesis.…”

“…Recent research on the looking-at-nothing phenomenon and the visual-world paradigm has shown that eye movements are applicable to the study of real-time retrieval processes (e.g., Hoover & Richardson, 2008;Johansson, Holsanova, Dewhurst, & Holmqvist, 2012;Johansson, Holsanova, & Holmqvist, 2006;Martarelli, Mast, & Hartmann, 2017;Richardson & Kirkham, 2004;Richardson & Spivey, 2000;Spivey & Geng, 2001) and language processing (Allopenna, Magnuson, & Tanenhaus, 1998;Altmann, 2004;Altmann & Kamide, 2007Tanenhaus, Spivey-Knowlton, Eberhard, & Sedivy, 1995). Extending these results, memory indexing has been developed as a process measure to study higher level cognitive tasks (Renkewitz & Jahn, 2010 and has been successfully applied to study reasoning and decision making (Jahn & Braatz, 2014;Platzer, Bröder, & Heck, 2014;Scholz, von Helversen, & Rieskamp, 2015). Inferring memory-based processing by observing eye movements is possible because reactivating information that is linked to a location reestablishes a spatial index that leads the gaze to the relevant location (Huettig, Olivers, & Hartsuiker, 2011;Johansson & Johansson, 2014;Scholz, Mehlhorn, & Krems, 2016;Spivey & Dale, 2011).…”