Nikolov Teodor Y, Allen Richard J, Havelka Jelena, Darling Stephen, van de Vegte Baz, Morey Candice C
Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.
Q J Exp Psychol (Hove). 2025 Feb;78(2):391-404. doi: 10.1177/17470218241282426. Epub 2024 Sep 28.
Visuospatial bootstrapping refers to the well-replicated phenomena in which serial recall in a purely verbal task is boosted by presenting digits within the familiar spatial layout of a typical telephone keypad. The visuospatial bootstrapping phenomena indicates that additional support comes from long-term knowledge of a fixed spatial pattern, and prior experimentation supports the idea that access to this benefit depends on the availability of the visuospatial motor system. We investigate this by tracking participants' eye movements during encoding and retention of verbal lists to learn whether gaze patterns support verbal memory differently when verbal information is presented in the familiar visual layout. Participants' gaze was recorded during attempts to recall lists of seven digits in three formats: centre of the screen, typical telephone keypad, or a spatially identical layout with randomised number placement. Performance was better with the typical than with the novel layout. Our data show that eye movements differ when encoding and retaining verbal information that has a familiar layout compared with the same verbal information presented in a novel layout, suggesting recruitment of different spatial rehearsal strategies. However, no clear link between gaze pattern and recall accuracy was observed, which suggests that gazes play a limited role in retention, at best.
视觉空间引导是指一种得到充分验证的现象，即在纯语言任务中的系列回忆通过在典型电话键盘的熟悉空间布局内呈现数字而得到增强。视觉空间引导现象表明，额外的支持来自对固定空间模式的长期知识，并且先前的实验支持这样一种观点，即获得这种益处取决于视觉空间运动系统的可用性。我们通过在言语列表的编码和保持过程中跟踪参与者的眼动来研究这一点，以了解当言语信息以熟悉的视觉布局呈现时，注视模式是否以不同方式支持言语记忆。在尝试回忆三种格式的七位数字列表时记录了参与者的注视情况：屏幕中心、典型电话键盘或数字位置随机的空间相同布局。典型布局的表现优于新颖布局。我们的数据表明，与以新颖布局呈现的相同言语信息相比，对具有熟悉布局的言语信息进行编码和保持时眼动有所不同，这表明采用了不同的空间复述策略。然而，未观察到注视模式与回忆准确性之间有明确联系，这表明注视充其量在保持过程中发挥有限作用。
