Using space to represent categories: insights from gaze position

Martarelli, Corinna S.; Chiquet, Sandra; Laeng, Bruno; Mast, Fred W.

doi:10.1007/s00426-016-0781-2

Cited by 19 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…As a supplementary analysis, we tested whether fixations in the relevant, blank quadrant predict memory performance using mixed-effects models. As Martarelli, Chiquet, Laeng and Mast (2016) assert, the best way to understand functionality of looks to blank locations seems to be the manipulation of eye position at retrieval. In the current study, participants might have used other strategies to retrieve information from memory when they were not forced to look at certain positions on the screen.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Less imageable words lead to more looks to blank locations during memory retrieval

Kumcu

Thompson

2018

Psychological Research

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People revisit spatial locations of visually encoded information when they are asked to retrieve that information, even when the visual image is no longer present. Such "looking at nothing" during retrieval is likely modulated by memory load (i.e., mental effort to maintain and reconstruct information) and the strength of mental representations. We investigated whether words that are more difficult to remember also lead to more looks to relevant, blank locations. Participants were presented four nouns on a two by two grid. A number of lexico-semantic variables were controlled to form high-difficulty and low-difficulty noun sets. Results reveal more frequent looks to blank locations during retrieval of high-difficulty nouns compared to low-difficulty ones. Mixed-effects modelling demonstrates that imagery-related semantic factors (imageability and concreteness) predict looking at nothing during retrieval. Results provide the first direct evidence that looking at nothing is modulated by word difficulty and in particular, word imageability. Overall, the research provides substantial support to the integrated memory account for linguistic stimuli and looking at nothing as a form of mental imagery.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Less imageable words lead to more looks to blank locations during memory retrieval

Kumcu

Thompson

2018

Psychological Research

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“…In trials in which no spatial cue appeared, participants looked at the empty spatial locations associated with the retrieved information, replicating previous results on the looking-atnothing behavior. This behavior was more pronounced for correct than for wrong responses, an early indication of a functional link between eye movements and memory retrieval (see also Martarelli et al, 2017;Martarelli & Mast, 2011). More importantly, the gaze manipulation through the spatial cue revealed higher retrieval accuracy in congruent compared to incongruent trials in which gaze was guided away from associated spatial locations.…”

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confidence: 84%

Covert shifts of attention can account for the functional role of “eye movements to nothing”

2017

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When trying to remember verbal information from memory, people look at spatial locations that have been associated with visual stimuli during encoding, even when the visual stimuli are no longer present. It has been shown that such "eye movements to nothing" can influence retrieval performance for verbal information, but the mechanism underlying this functional relationship is unclear. More precisely, covert in comparison to overt shifts of attention could be sufficient to elicit the observed differences in retrieval performance. To test if covert shifts of attention explain the functional role of the looking-at-nothing phenomenon, we asked participants to remember verbal information that had been associated with a spatial location during an encoding phase. Additionally, during the retrieval phase, all participants solved an unrelated visual tracking task that appeared in either an associated (congruent) or an incongruent spatial location. Half the participants were instructed to look at the tracking task, half to shift their attention covertly (while keeping the eyes fixed). In two experiments, we found that memory retrieval depended on the location to which participants shifted their attention covertly. Thus, covert shifts of attention seem to be sufficient to cause differences in retrieval performance. The results extend the literature on the relationship between visuospatial attention, eye movements, and verbal memory retrieval and provide deep insights into the nature of the looking-at-nothing phenomenon.

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“…For instance, Spivey and Geng (2001) found that when participants were questioned about an object, they gazed back to empty locations on the screen corresponding to those, where visual information was presented during encoding. To date, many studies have replicated such "looking at nothing" on a twodimensional (2D) computer screen (Johansson and Johansson 2014;Martarelli et al 2017;Mast 2011, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eye movements to absent objects during mental imagery and visual memory in immersive virtual reality

2020

Self Cite

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The role of eye movements in mental imagery and visual memory is typically investigated by presenting stimuli or scenes on a two-dimensional (2D) computer screen. When questioned about objects that had previously been presented on-screen, people gaze back to the location of the stimuli, even though those regions are blank during retrieval. It remains unclear whether this behavior is limited to a highly controlled experimental setting using 2D screens or whether it also occurs in a more naturalistic setting. The present study aims to overcome this shortcoming. Three-dimensional (3D) objects were presented along a circular path in an immersive virtual room. During retrieval, participants were given two tasks: to visualize the objects, which they had encoded before, and to evaluate a statement about visual details of the object. We observed longer fixation duration in the area, on which the object was previously displayed, when compared to other possible target locations. However, in 89% of the time, participants fixated none of the predefined areas. On the one hand, this shows that looking at nothing may be overestimated in 2D screen-based paradigm, on the other hand, the looking at nothing effect was still present in the 3D immersive virtual reality setting, and thus it extends external validity of previous findings. Eye movements during retrieval reinstate spatial information of previously inspected stimuli.

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Using space to represent categories: insights from gaze position

Cited by 19 publications

References 31 publications

Less imageable words lead to more looks to blank locations during memory retrieval

Less imageable words lead to more looks to blank locations during memory retrieval

Covert shifts of attention can account for the functional role of “eye movements to nothing”

Eye movements to absent objects during mental imagery and visual memory in immersive virtual reality

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