Gurtner, Lilla M; Bischof, Walter F; Mast, Fred W (2023). Gaze Restriction and Reactivation of Place-bound Content Drive Eye Movements During Mental Imagery. Journal of cognition, 6(1), pp. 1-18. Ubiquity Press 10.5334/joc.316
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Gurtner - Gaze Restriction and Reactivation of Place-bound C.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY). Download (21MB) | Preview |
When we imagine a picture, we move our eyes even though the picture is physically not present. These eye movements provide information about the ongoing process of mental imagery. Eye movements unfold over time, and previous research has shown that the temporal gaze dynamics of eye movements in mental imagery have unique properties, which are unrelated to those in perception. In mental imagery, refixations of previously fixated locations happen more often and in a more systematic manner than in perception. The origin of these unique properties remains unclear. We tested how the temporal structure of eye movements is influenced by the complexity of the mental image. Participants briefly saw and then maintained a pattern stimulus, consisting of one (easy condition) to four black segments (most difficult condition). When maintaining a simple pattern in imagery, participants restricted their gaze to a narrow area, and for more complex stimuli, eye movements were more spread out to distant areas. At the same time, fewer refixations were made in imagery when the stimuli were complex. The results show that refixations depend on the imagined content. While fixations of stimulus-related areas reflect the so-called ‘looking at nothing’ effect, gaze restriction emphasizes differences between mental imagery and perception.
Item Type: |
Journal Article (Original Article) |
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Division/Institute: |
07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Psychology > Cognitive Psychology, Perception and Methodology |
UniBE Contributor: |
Gurtner, Lilla, Mast, Fred |
Subjects: |
100 Philosophy > 150 Psychology |
ISSN: |
2514-4820 |
Publisher: |
Ubiquity Press |
Language: |
English |
Submitter: |
Lilla Gurtner |
Date Deposited: |
05 Sep 2023 11:41 |
Last Modified: |
05 Sep 2023 11:41 |
Publisher DOI: |
10.5334/joc.316 |
PubMed ID: |
37663138 |
Uncontrolled Keywords: |
eye movement; individual differences; looking at nothing; recurrence quantification analysis; visual imagery |
BORIS DOI: |
10.48350/185952 |
URI: |
https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/185952 |
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