Distorted Gaze Reinstatement: Eye-Tracking the Impact of Misinformation on Episodic Memory Retrieval
(2025) PSYP01 20251Department of Psychology
- Abstract
- Prior research has established that misinformation can distort episodic memory, and that attention plays a critical role in how these distortions unfold. Eye movements, as a real-time index of attention, offer a powerful method for investigating the mechanisms linking misinformation and memory. Although earlier studies have examined misinformation effects on eye movements, these studies have mostly focused on the formation of false memories during episodic encoding, such as exposure to fake news. However, the relationship between acceptance or resistance to misinformation and gaze behavior during episodic retrieval remains unknown. The present study investigates the misinformation effect on gaze patterns during retrieval of episodic... (More)
- Prior research has established that misinformation can distort episodic memory, and that attention plays a critical role in how these distortions unfold. Eye movements, as a real-time index of attention, offer a powerful method for investigating the mechanisms linking misinformation and memory. Although earlier studies have examined misinformation effects on eye movements, these studies have mostly focused on the formation of false memories during episodic encoding, such as exposure to fake news. However, the relationship between acceptance or resistance to misinformation and gaze behavior during episodic retrieval remains unknown. The present study investigates the misinformation effect on gaze patterns during retrieval of episodic memories while participants look at an empty screen. This well-established paradigm, known as Looking at Nothing (LAN), entails reinstatement of encoding-related gaze patterns. The study asks whether post-event misinformation can distort the reinstatement of the spatiotemporal context of the encoded event. Participants memorized a series of naturalistic images paired with sentences, half of which contained misleading details. Then during retrieval in the LAN paradigm, participants imagined the encoded images while their eye movements were recorded. Finally, their memory of two elements of the images was tested using a surprise four-alternative forced-choice task. The eye movement metrics included dwell time, fixation counts, and the number of gaze transitions between the placeholders on the LAN screen that corresponded to the locations of targets on the encoded image. The results showed that, in the absence of misinformation, frequent gaze transitions between placeholders predicted correct recall. When memory was distorted by a misleading sentence, the number of misinformation-consistent incorrect recalls increased. Remarkably, these misinformation-consistent recalls were predicted by gaze transitions between the placeholders on the LAN screen, which were more frequent than for all other recall types (i.e., correct, misinformation-inconsistent, and irrelevant). Thus, the frequency of gaze transitions has diagnostic value for detecting retrieval of misleading information. Overall, these findings demonstrate how misinformation alters the mechanisms of episodic retrieval by disrupting gaze behavior that normally supports retrieval. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9212195
- author
- Eleftheriou, Sokratis LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- PSYP01 20251
- year
- 2025
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- misinformation effect, eye-tracking, memory retrieval, gaze reinstatement, Looking-at-Nothing paradigm
- language
- English
- id
- 9212195
- date added to LUP
- 2025-09-16 16:01:30
- date last changed
- 2025-09-16 16:01:30
@misc{9212195,
abstract = {{Prior research has established that misinformation can distort episodic memory, and that attention plays a critical role in how these distortions unfold. Eye movements, as a real-time index of attention, offer a powerful method for investigating the mechanisms linking misinformation and memory. Although earlier studies have examined misinformation effects on eye movements, these studies have mostly focused on the formation of false memories during episodic encoding, such as exposure to fake news. However, the relationship between acceptance or resistance to misinformation and gaze behavior during episodic retrieval remains unknown. The present study investigates the misinformation effect on gaze patterns during retrieval of episodic memories while participants look at an empty screen. This well-established paradigm, known as Looking at Nothing (LAN), entails reinstatement of encoding-related gaze patterns. The study asks whether post-event misinformation can distort the reinstatement of the spatiotemporal context of the encoded event. Participants memorized a series of naturalistic images paired with sentences, half of which contained misleading details. Then during retrieval in the LAN paradigm, participants imagined the encoded images while their eye movements were recorded. Finally, their memory of two elements of the images was tested using a surprise four-alternative forced-choice task. The eye movement metrics included dwell time, fixation counts, and the number of gaze transitions between the placeholders on the LAN screen that corresponded to the locations of targets on the encoded image. The results showed that, in the absence of misinformation, frequent gaze transitions between placeholders predicted correct recall. When memory was distorted by a misleading sentence, the number of misinformation-consistent incorrect recalls increased. Remarkably, these misinformation-consistent recalls were predicted by gaze transitions between the placeholders on the LAN screen, which were more frequent than for all other recall types (i.e., correct, misinformation-inconsistent, and irrelevant). Thus, the frequency of gaze transitions has diagnostic value for detecting retrieval of misleading information. Overall, these findings demonstrate how misinformation alters the mechanisms of episodic retrieval by disrupting gaze behavior that normally supports retrieval.}},
author = {{Eleftheriou, Sokratis}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Distorted Gaze Reinstatement: Eye-Tracking the Impact of Misinformation on Episodic Memory Retrieval}},
year = {{2025}},
}