Eye Movements During Mental Imagery are Not Reenactments of Perception
Author
Editor
- Stellan Ohlsson
- Richard Catrambone
Summary, in English
In this study eye movements were recorded for participants in three different conditions. All three conditions consisted of a perception phase and an imagery phase. The imagery phase was similar for all conditions, i.e. participants looked freely at a blank white screen. But the perception phase was different for each condition. In a control condition participants looked freely at a complex picture. In the first experimental condition they looked at another complex picture but maintained fixation at the center of the picture. In the second experimental condition they maintained central fixation while listening to a verbal scene description. The results revealed that despite central fixation during perception in the two central gaze conditions, participants’ eye movements were spread out during imagery and reflected spatial positions and directions of the picture or scene. These results contradict the assumption that eye movements during imagery are reenactments of perception.
Department/s
Publishing year
2010
Language
English
Pages
1968-1973
Publication/Series
Cognition in Flux
Document type
Conference paper
Publisher
Cognitive Science Society, Inc
Topic
- Human Aspects of ICT
Keywords
- Eye-movements
- Mental imagery
- Spatial Cognition
- Visual attention
- Scene Description
Conference name
Cognitive Science conference
Conference date
0001-01-02
Status
Published
Project
- Thinking in Time: Cognition, Communication and Learning