Remember down, look down, read up: Does a word modulate eye trajectory away from remembered location?

Abstract

Previous studies show that eye movement trajectory curves away from a remembered visual location if a saccade needs to be made in the same direction as the location. Data suggest that part of the process of maintaining the location in working memory is the mental simulation of that location, so that the oculomotor system treats the remembered location as a real one. Other research suggests that word meaning may also behave like a 'real object' in space. The current study aimed to combine the two streams of research examining the effect of word meaning on the memory of a dot location. The results of two experiments showed that word meaning for 'up' (but not 'down') modulated both eye movement trajectory and location recognition time. Thus, mental simulation of task-irrelevant space-related word meaning affected both earlier stages of memory processes (maintenance of the location in the working memory) and later ones (location recognition).

Experiential traces first: Does holding a location in visuospatial working memory affect the processing of space-associated words?

“…Post hoc analyses, however, showed a main effect of dot position when participants decided about “up” words, which was in line with our prediction. It is worth noting that in previous studies examining words with spatial associations, also only the “up” words resulted in an effect (Dudschig et al, 2013 ; Janyan et al, 2015 ; Tsaregorodtseva & Miklashevsky, 2015 ). Thus, although the predicted interaction was not observed, the present results did replicate this asymmetry of the effect with a different paradigm.…”

Catch the star! Spatial information activates the manual motor system

“…This effect extends even to abstract concepts, such as god or devil [38]. Simple linguistic cues (e.g., the word up) can also modulate trajectories of vertical saccades [39].…”

Catch the star! Spatial information activates the manual motor system

“…This effect extends even to abstract concepts, such as god or devil (Chasteen et al, 2010). Simple linguistic cues (e.g., the word up ) can also modulate trajectories of vertical saccades (Janyan et al, 2015).…”