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Eye movements to “nothing” have an active role during visuospatial memory retrieval

Johansson, Roger LU orcid (2013) 55th Conference of Experimental Psychologists (TeaP 2013)
Abstract
Several studies have reported that spontaneous eye movements occur with visuospatial imagery and that they closely reflect content and spatial relations from an original picture or scene during episodic memory retrieval (e.g., Brandt& Stark, 1997; Johansson, et al., 2006). Nevertheless, the role for these eye movements to “nothing” is elusive and has been debated extensively in current research (cf., Ferreira et al., 2008; Richardson et al., 2009). Do they have an active and functional role when visuospatial information is retrieved from memory or are they merely an epiphenomenon which does not interact with mnemonic mechanisms in any useful way? The present study was designed to address this fundamental issue by investigating how... (More)
Several studies have reported that spontaneous eye movements occur with visuospatial imagery and that they closely reflect content and spatial relations from an original picture or scene during episodic memory retrieval (e.g., Brandt& Stark, 1997; Johansson, et al., 2006). Nevertheless, the role for these eye movements to “nothing” is elusive and has been debated extensively in current research (cf., Ferreira et al., 2008; Richardson et al., 2009). Do they have an active and functional role when visuospatial information is retrieved from memory or are they merely an epiphenomenon which does not interact with mnemonic mechanisms in any useful way? The present study was designed to address this fundamental issue by investigating how imposing different eye movements on participants affects retrieval performance of visuospatial information. Results provide robust evidence that eye movements to “nothing” do have an active and supportive role during visuospatial recollections, and that they indeed can act as facilitatory retrieval cues in this process. (Less)
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author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to conference
publication status
unpublished
subject
conference name
55th Conference of Experimental Psychologists (TeaP 2013)
conference dates
2013-03-24
project
Thinking in Time: Cognition, Communication and Learning
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
2e33387f-75d5-4953-bf06-ffa8c69dfcab (old id 4252291)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 14:10:24
date last changed
2019-06-04 14:52:53
@misc{2e33387f-75d5-4953-bf06-ffa8c69dfcab,
  abstract     = {{Several studies have reported that spontaneous eye movements occur with visuospatial imagery and that they closely reflect content and spatial relations from an original picture or scene during episodic memory retrieval (e.g., Brandt& Stark, 1997; Johansson, et al., 2006). Nevertheless, the role for these eye movements to “nothing” is elusive and has been debated extensively in current research (cf., Ferreira et al., 2008; Richardson et al., 2009). Do they have an active and functional role when visuospatial information is retrieved from memory or are they merely an epiphenomenon which does not interact with mnemonic mechanisms in any useful way? The present study was designed to address this fundamental issue by investigating how imposing different eye movements on participants affects retrieval performance of visuospatial information. Results provide robust evidence that eye movements to “nothing” do have an active and supportive role during visuospatial recollections, and that they indeed can act as facilitatory retrieval cues in this process.}},
  author       = {{Johansson, Roger}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  title        = {{Eye movements to “nothing” have an active role during visuospatial memory retrieval}},
  year         = {{2013}},
}