Imagery-related eye movements in 3D space depend on individual differences in visual object imagery

Abstract

During recall of visual information people tend to move their eyes even though there is nothing to see. Previous studies indicated that such eye movements are related to the spatial location of previously seen items on 2D screens, but they also showed that eye movement behavior varies significantly across individuals. The reason for these differences remains unclear. In the present study we used immersive virtual reality to investigate how individual tendencies to process and represent visual information contribute to eye fixation patterns in visual imagery of previously inspected objects in three-dimensional (3D) space. We show that participants also look back to relevant locations when they are free to move in 3D space. Furthermore, we found that looking back to relevant locations depends on individual differences in visual object imagery abilities. We suggest that object visualizers rely less on spatial information because they tend to process and represent the visual information in terms of color and shape rather than in terms of spatial layout. This finding indicates that eye movements during imagery are subject to individual strategies, and the immersive setting in 3D space made individual differences more likely to unfold.

Internal Coupling: Eye Behavior Coupled to Visual Imagery

“…People who preferentially used object imagery showed a smaller looking at nothing effect (Chiquet et al, 2022), suggesting that they might rely less on the spatial location and more on vividness and detail of internal visual representations; however, neither imagery style nor looking at nothing affected memory performance. Furthermore, two studies reported heterogeneity of internal coupling across trials and participants (B.…”

“…However, not all findings consistently showed this relationship (Armson et al, 2021;Bone et al, 2019;Chiquet et al, 2021Chiquet et al, , 2022Gurtner et al, 2021;Kinjo et al, 2020;Richardson & Spivey, 2000). For example, restricting gaze behavior during encoding did not affect memory performance (Richardson & Spivey, 2000), looking at nothing did not differ between correct and incorrect retrievals of objects in a virtual reality setting (Chiquet et al, 2021(Chiquet et al, , 2022, and gaze reinstatement did not correlate with memory accuracy of natural images (Bone et al, 2019).…”

“…This version of the manuscript is not peer reviewed yet 33 navigate through them as if they were physical entities, enhancing the recall process in memory tasks. On the other hand, one could also assume that internal coupling may serve as compensatory mechanism in individuals with less vivid imagery, by facilitating the construction or reinstatement of internal representations through eye movements (Chiquet et al, 2022). In sum, individual differences seem to moderate internal coupling, but the extent to which these differences affect the relationship between internal coupling and performance is less evident and represents an important avenue for future research.…”

Gaze Restriction and Reactivation of Place-bound Content Drive Eye Movements During Mental Imagery

“…Participants with a non-spatial representationstyle, i.e. object-imagers (Bochynska & Laeng, 2015), show diminished 'looking at nothing' (Chiquet, Martarelli, & Mast, 2022) and could be those who do not move their eyes much during imagery (non-saccaders, Kinjo et al, 2020). In their case, planning, executing and verifying eye movements could add noise, while their representation would not gain much from making stimulus-related eye movements.…”

Preprint: How workload and availability of spatial reference shape eye movement coupling in visuospatial working memory

“…Recent studies found that lower working memory capacity (Klichowicz et al, 2022), lower cognitive resources (Wynn et al, 2019), and lower spatial imagery skills were associated with more looking-at-nothing behavior (Johansson et al, 2011). Similarly, in a 3D setting, one study found that lower object imagery skills are related to more looks back to now blank spaces when trying to imagine a previously seen object (Chiquet et al, 2022).…”