Eye movements and mental imagery

Our research group has previously shown that spontaneous eye movements occur during mental imagery and that they reflect content and spatial relations from the imagined scene. The purpose of this project is to investigate the cognitive role for such eye movements. Do they have a functional role for memory retrieval and internal image formation or are they merely an epiphenomenal side effect?

The ability to mentally visualize things and events has played a crucial role in the evolution of human cognition and is something that seems to influence thinking in a wide range of everyday situations. For instance, we “see” images in our minds when we recall past events, when we plan for future events and when we read an exciting novel. Due to the inherently private nature of mental imagery it has been very difficult to investigate this phenomenon. However, with present day eye-tracking techniques a novel way to investigate our mind has emerged.

Ask a friend to imagine her home and then ask her how many windows there are. If you look at her eyes while she is performing this task, you will probably see them moving as she is mentally counting windows. This phenomenon – that eye movements can be used as a direct behavioral correlate of humans' internal shifts of attention when visualizing objects and scenes – has been shown by our research group in a number of previous studies and is the general target of this project.

The specific purpose of the current project is to investigate the role for such eye movements to nothing during mental imagery and episodic memory retrieval. Are they a reactivation of those eye movements that occurred when the recalled scene was inspected and encoded in memory? Do they have a functional role in memory retrieval? Are there individual differences and, if so, how are these related to attention, memory and visuospatial capabilities.