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Updated: Jun 5, 2026

Eye Movement Monitoring of Memory
Published on: August 15, 2010
Do object refixations during scene viewing indicate rehearsal in visual working memory?
Gregory J Zelinsky1, Lester C Loschky, Christopher A Dickinson
1Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-2500, USA. Gregory.Zelinsky@stonybrook.edu
Abstract:
Do refixations serve a rehearsal function in visual working memory (VWM)? We analyzed refixations from observers freely viewing multiobject scenes. An eyetracker was used to limit the viewing of a scene to a specified number of objects fixated after the target (intervening objects), followed by a four-alternative forced choice recognition test. Results showed that the probability of target refixation increased with the number of fixated intervening objects, and these refixations produced a 16% accuracy benefit over the first five intervening-object conditions. Additionally, refixations most frequently occurred after fixations on only one to two other objects, regardless of the intervening-object condition. These behaviors could not be explained by random or minimally constrained computational models; a VWM component was required to completely describe these data. We explain these findings in terms of a monitor-refixate rehearsal system: The activations of object representations in VWM are monitored, with refixations occurring when these activations decrease suddenly.
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