Memory indexing: A novel method for tracing memory processes in complex cognitive tasks.

Abstract

We validate an eye-tracking method applicable for studying memory processes in complex cognitive tasks. The method is tested with a task on probabilistic inferences from memory. It provides valuable data on the time course of processing, thus clarifying previous results on heuristic probabilistic inference. Participants learned cue values of decision alternatives that were arranged within spatial frames. Later, they were told about the validities of cue dimensions and performed memory-based binary choice tasks: first, according to spontaneously adopted decision strategies and, subsequently, according to instructed decision strategies (a noncompensatory lexicographic strategy and a compensatory equal weighting strategy). During decision making, participants saw only the empty spatial frames without cue values. The spontaneously adopted and instructed decision strategies were reflected in discriminable gaze patterns on the empty spatial frames. When retrieving information no longer visible, participants tended to fixate on locations at which information was visible during the learning phase (the looking-at-nothing phenomenon). Gaze patterns were consistent with cue-wise and alternative-wise patterns of information search predicted for the instructed decision strategies as well as for the spontaneously adopted strategies identified based on decision outcomes. These findings extend previous results on the connection between memory and gaze. Furthermore, the successful application of memory indexing suggests its wider applicability in studying memory-based tasks.

Evaluating Scientists as Sources of Science Information: Evidence From Eye Movements

“…This phenomenon in which individuals, while retrieving information from memory, gaze back at spatial locations previously associated with that information (during encoding) has been observed by other studies across different contexts and domains (Johansson & Johansson, 2014;Platzer, Bröder, & Heck, 2014;Renkewitz & Jahn, 2012;Scholz, Mehlhorn, & Krems, 2016;Scholz, von Helversen, & Rieskamp, 2015;Spivey & Geng, 2001). Collectively, these studies suggest that eye movements can be used as a measure of memory retrieval without the need for self-report responses.…”

How Information Availability Interacts with Visual Attention during Judgment and Decision Tasks

“…Because process tracing has usually been performed on novel stimuli, we do not know enough about how memory processes affect visual attention in decision making (cf. Renkewitz & Jahn, 2012).…”

“…For instance, participants who first encode an arrangement of objects and are later asked to recall aspects of that arrangement while looking at a blank screen will spontaneously execute eye movements "to nothing" on the blank screen, which largely correspond to the original object arrangement (e.g., Altman, 2004;Johansson & Johansson, 2014;Spivey & Geng, 2001). Research using such a blank-screen design has demonstrated that eye-movement patterns typical of various decision making strategies remain when decisionrelevant information is removed from the display and the decision is made strictly from memory (Jahn & Braatz, 2014;Renkewitz & Jahn, 2012;Scholz, von Helversen, & Rieskamp, 2015). In addition, compatibility of gaze positions between encoding and retrieval can increase the likelihood of successful remembering (Johansson & Johansson, 2014) and may trigger other associated memories (Platzer, Bröder, & Heck, 2014).…”

Deciding with the eye: How the visually manipulated accessibility of information in memory influences decision behavior

“…By using the location as a retrieval cue, looking at nothing facilitates memory retrieval for information associated with this location (Ferreira, Apel, & Henderson, 2008). Using a decision task, Renkewitz and Jahn (2012) provided evidence that gaze behavior can validly indicate which piece of information people try to retrieve.…”