Imagery and Perception

Overview

This project investigated how visual perception and mental imagery interact, and how this interaction may be reflected in eye movements.

Participants viewed visual stimuli, maintained information through imagery, and performed tasks related to their imagined representations while their eye movements were recorded. The broader question was whether eye movements are merely incidental motor outputs, or whether they reveal the spatial and temporal organisation of attention, perception, memory, and imagery. By examining oculomotor responses across different stages of the task, the project aimed to understand how external visual input and internally generated representations may shape where and when the eyes move.

Reflection

This project changed the way I think about eye movements. In my previous work on reading, I mainly treated eye movements as measures of linguistic processing: regressions, fixations, and rereading patterns helped reveal how readers respond to ambiguity in sentences. In this rotation, I encountered a broader view of the eyes as part of cognition itself. Eye movements may not only reflect what people are processing, but may also support the organisation of attention, memory, and mental imagery. This made me see eye-tracking not just as a method for observing cognition from the outside, but as a window into how internal representations are actively structured in space and time.

Project period

September 2025 – December 2025

Supervision

This project was conducted under the supervision of Prof. Marius Peelen and Dr. Maëlle Lerebourg. Cover image adapted from Dr. Maëlle Lerebourg.

Read more

See more exciting studies on the lab website: Visual Cognitive Neuroscience Lab!