Nantes Université, Univ Angers, Laboratoire de psychologie des Pays de la Loire, LPPL, UR 4638, F-44000 Nantes, France.
Université de Nantes, Inserm, TENS, The Enteric Nervous System in Gut and Brain Diseases, IMAD, Nantes, France; CHU Nantes, Clinical Gerontology Department, Bd Jacques Monod, F44093 Nantes, France.
Conscious Cogn. 2022 Oct;105:103398. doi: 10.1016/j.concog.2022.103398. Epub 2022 Aug 26.
We evaluated the relationship between eye movements and future thinking. More specifically, we evaluated whether maintained fixation could influence cognitive characteristics of future thinking. We invited participants to imagine future events in two conditions: while freely exploring a white wall and while fixating a cross on the wall. Results demonstrated fewer and longer fixations, as well as fewer and shorter saccades during maintained fixation condition than in the free gaze condition. Shorter total amplitude of saccades was also observed during the maintained fixation condition than during the free-gaze condition. Regarding the cognitive characteristics of future thinking, fewer spatiotemporal details and less visual imagery, slower retrieval time, and shorter descriptions were observed for future thinking during maintained fixation than during free-gaze condition. These results demonstrate that maintaining fixation results in an effortful construction of future scenarios. We suggest that maintained fixation limits the cognitive resources that are required for future thinking.
我们评估了眼球运动与未来思维之间的关系。更具体地说，我们评估了保持注视是否会影响未来思维的认知特征。我们邀请参与者在两种条件下想象未来的事件：自由地探索一面白色的墙壁和注视墙壁上的一个十字。结果表明，在保持注视的条件下，注视次数较少且时间较长，眼跳次数较少且时间较短。在保持注视的条件下，眼跳的总幅度也比在自由注视的条件下短。关于未来思维的认知特征，在保持注视的条件下，未来思维的时空细节较少，视觉想象较少，检索时间较慢，描述较短。这些结果表明，保持注视会导致未来场景的费力构建。我们认为，保持注视限制了未来思维所需的认知资源。
