The relationship between confidence and gaze-at-nothing oculomotor dynamics during decision-making

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Decision Science
• Ophthalmology

Background:

• Oculomotor dynamics are crucial for visual attention and information gathering during decision-making.
• The role of eye movements in confidence assessment and deliberation, especially in the absence of stimuli, remains underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between oculomotor dynamics, working memory, deliberation, and confidence during decision-making.
• To determine if oculomotor dynamics reflect cognitive processes in the absence of visual stimuli.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of oculomotor dynamics in a decision-making task with abstract contexts and temporarily invisible stimuli.
• Correlation analysis between fixation patterns, decision confidence, and observation times.
• Model comparison using drift-diffusion models to assess evidence gathering and option consideration.

Main Results:

• Sustained fixations between image locations indicate ongoing deliberation even after stimuli disappearance.
• Oculomotor dynamics and decision patterns were unaffected by stimulus visibility.
• Negative correlation between alternating fixations and confidence; positive correlation between target observation time and confidence.

Conclusions:

• Oculomotor dynamics reflect evidence retrieval from working memory and confidence gathering during decision-making.
• Confidence is a cognitive process involving both serial evidence gathering and parallel option consideration.
• Eye movements provide insights into the cognitive underpinnings of decision-making, independent of continuous visual input.