Eye movement markers of relational encoding predict scene memory precision
Recalling scenes and events depends on how information is relationally organised in memory, but it is unclear whether the organisation of eye movements during encoding, rather than simply how much is explored, shapes what is remembered. Using a scene-viewing paradigm and drawing-based free recall task to capture the content and structure of remembered scenes, we examined whether scene memory was…
Researchers have discovered that how we remember scenes and events is influenced by how information is organized in memory. They wanted to find out if the arrangement of eye movements during the encoding process, rather than just the amount explored, has an impact on what is remembered.
To investigate this, they used a scene-viewing method and a drawing-based free recall task. These methods captured the content and structure of the remembered scenes. The study aimed to determine if scene memory could be better explained by measures reflecting the quantity and spatial extent of sampling, or by measures capturing gaze organization and temporal dynamics.
The results showed that memory precision was better predicted by higher-order measures (refixations and stationary gaze entropy) during encoding, as opposed to lower-order measures (number of fixations and scanpath length). This indicates that the organization of visual attention, rather than the quantity of sampling, contributed to the scene representations that preserved relationships between elements.
In conclusion, this research highlights the importance of spatial gaze dynamics in optimizing the encoding of organized, relational scene representations for episodic memory.
Written by urgent.news from bioRxiv's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
