When trying to remember verbal information from memory, people look at spatial locations that have been associated with visual stimuli during encoding, even when the visual stimuli are no longer present. It has been shown that this so-called “looking at nothing” behaviour can influence retrieval performance for verbal information. I am interested in the memory mechanism underlying this functional relationship to get a better understanding of the complex interaction between eye movements, attention and memory.
Relevant publications
Scholz, A., Klichowicz, A., Krems, J. F. (2018). Covert shifts of attention can account for the functional role of “eye movements to nothing”. Memory & Cognition, 46, 230-243. http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13421-017-0760-x
Scholz, A., Mehlhorn, K., & Krems, J. F. (2016). Listen up, eye movements play a role in verbal memory retrieval. Psychological Research, 80, 149-158. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00426-014-0639-4.
Scholz, A., Mehlhorn, K., Bocklisch, F., & Krems, J.F. (2011). Looking at nothing diminishes with practice. In L. Carlson, C. Hoelscher, & T.F. Shipley (Eds.), Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1070-1075). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.