Eye movements and visual imagery in free recall

The relationship between eye movements and visual imagery has almost exclusively been studied by treating eye movements as the dependent variable while an imagery task is being performed. In the present experiment three eye-movement treatment conditions were manipulated, within Ss, as the independent variable in order to study their effects on the free recall of nouns which Ss had to store by means of imagery. The imagery-evoking capacity (I) of nouns was varied over three levels within lists of Dutch nouns (Low, Medium and High I). Ss were instructed to generate a visual image to each separate noun under the following treatment conditions: (a) while they looked over and scanned their image as if they were looking at the real object: (b) while they received concurrent visual stimulation from a checkerboard pattern; (c) while they fixated on a target. Reliable, but minor effects of treatment conditions on the recall scores were found. The results were discussed in terms of possible theories about the nature of the relationship between eye movements and visual imagery.