The Functional Role of Eye Movements in Episodic Remembering Depends on the Individual and the Memory: Evidence Across the Phantasia Spectrum
Abstract
Eye movements are thought to support episodic remembering by reinstating aspects of the content and relational structure of previous experiences. However, it remains unclear whether this functional role differs across mental imagery phenotypes spanning the spectrum from aphantasia to hyperphantasia. To address this question, we experimentally manipulated eye movements during retrieval in participants sampled broadly across the imagery spectrum. Gaze reinstatement occurred reliably during free viewing and predicted recollection. Restricting eye movements significantly impaired recollection, providing experimental evidence that the opportunity to move the eyes contributes functionally to episodic remembering. Critically, the benefit of free viewing depended on imagery ability, showing a nonlinear relationship with imagery vividness that was greatest at intermediate levels and reduced toward both ends of the imagery spectrum. Imagery vividness did not systematically predict gaze reinstatement itself, indicating a distinction between spontaneous oculomotor behaviour and its functional contribution to remembering. This relationship became increasingly pronounced with greater visual exploration during encoding: memories with a more extensive visual sampling history showed greater subsequent dependence on eye movements during retrieval. Spatial imagery provided an additional independent source of variation, with individuals high in spatial imagery exhibiting greater impairment when eye movements were restricted. These findings demonstrate that the functional role of eye movements in episodic remembering is not uniform across mental imagery phenotypes but depends jointly on imagery ability and the extent of visual exploration during encoding. More broadly, they suggest that eye movements constitute a flexible retrieval mechanism whose contribution varies across individuals and memories.
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BibTeX
@misc{brewer2026functional,
title = {{The Functional Role of Eye Movements in Episodic Remembering Depends on the Individual and the Memory: Evidence Across the Phantasia Spectrum}},
author = {Sylvana Brewer and Mikael Johansson and Roger Johansson},
howpublished = {PsyArXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.31234/osf.io/sya9k_v1},
url = {https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/sya9k_v1/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - The Functional Role of Eye Movements in Episodic Remembering Depends on the Individual and the Memory: Evidence Across the Phantasia Spectrum
AU - Sylvana Brewer
AU - Mikael Johansson
AU - Roger Johansson
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/01
PB - PsyArXiv
DO - 10.31234/osf.io/sya9k_v1
UR - https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/sya9k_v1/
AB - Eye movements are thought to support episodic remembering by reinstating aspects of the content and relational structure of previous experiences. However, it remains unclear whether this functional role differs across mental imagery phenotypes spanning the spectrum from aphantasia to hyperphantasia. To address this question, we experimentally manipulated eye movements during retrieval in participants sampled broadly across the imagery spectrum. Gaze reinstatement occurred reliably during free viewing and predicted recollection. Restricting eye movements significantly impaired recollection, providing experimental evidence that the opportunity to move the eyes contributes functionally to episodic remembering. Critically, the benefit of free viewing depended on imagery ability, showing a nonlinear relationship with imagery vividness that was greatest at intermediate levels and reduced toward both ends of the imagery spectrum. Imagery vividness did not systematically predict gaze reinstatement itself, indicating a distinction between spontaneous oculomotor behaviour and its functional contribution to remembering. This relationship became increasingly pronounced with greater visual exploration during encoding: memories with a more extensive visual sampling history showed greater subsequent dependence on eye movements during retrieval. Spatial imagery provided an additional independent source of variation, with individuals high in spatial imagery exhibiting greater impairment when eye movements were restricted. These findings demonstrate that the functional role of eye movements in episodic remembering is not uniform across mental imagery phenotypes but depends jointly on imagery ability and the extent of visual exploration during encoding. More broadly, they suggest that eye movements constitute a flexible retrieval mechanism whose contribution varies across individuals and memories.
ER -