Eye movements of recent and remote autobiographical memories: fewer and longer lasting fixations during the retrieval of
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Eye movements of recent and remote autobiographical memories: fewer and longer lasting fixations during the retrieval of childhood memories Mohamad El Haj1,2,3 · Claire Boutoleau‑Bretonnière4 · Steve M. J. Janssen5 Received: 14 June 2020 / Accepted: 4 August 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract There is an increased interest in the study of eye movements during the retrieval of autobiographical memories. Following this trend, the aim of the current study was to evaluate eye movements during the retrieval of remote and recent autobiographical memories. We instructed 71 participants to retrieve memories of personal events from early childhood (6–10 years), late childhood/early adolescence (11–14 years), late adolescence (15–18 years), and the last month. During the retrieval of these memories, participants wore eye-tracking glasses. Analyses showed that early childhood memories triggered fewer fixations and fixations with longer durations than memories from the last month. However, no significant differences were observed for the number of saccades, saccade durations, or total amplitude of the saccades. The fewer and longer lasting fixations during the retrieval of early childhood memories can be attributed either to the visual system reconstructing remote memories from an observer perspective or to difficulties when reconstructing remote memories.
Eye movements and autobiographical memory Recently, there has been a surge of interest in the study of eye movements during the retrieval of autobiographical memories. Much of this interest stems from the availability of cheap, ecological, and easy-to-use equipment, allowing robust and high-quality recordings of eye movements. For instance, researchers can now use light and thin eye-tracking glasses allowing the recording of eye movements in natural settings. Due to the availability of this ecologically valid * Mohamad El Haj mohamad.elhaj@univ‑nantes.fr 1
Faculté de Psychologie, Laboratoire de Psychologie Des Pays de La Loire (LPPL ‑ EA 4638), Université de Nantes, Chemin de La Censive du Tertre, Univ Angers, BP 81227, 44312 Nantes, France
2
Unité de Gériatrie, Centre Hospitalier de Tourcoing, Tourcoing, France
3
Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France
4
Department of Neurology, Centre Mémoire de Ressources Et Recherche, CHU Nantes, Inserm CIC04, Nantes, France
5
University of Nottingham–Malaysia Campus, Semenyih, Malaysia
eye movement recording equipment, our study could assess eye movements during the retrieval of remote and recent autobiographical memories. Our study was based on the previous research assessing eye movements during autobiographical memory retrieval. In a pioneer study, El Haj et al. (2014) instructed participants in the experimental condition to retrieve autobiographical memories and in the control condition to count aloud. In both conditions, participants were invited to look at a blank screen, while their gaze location was recorded by a screenbased eye tracker. Res
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