Imagery, scanpaths reenactments and their functionality. The testing of a hypothesis.

Abstract: This paper centers on visual imagery and the hypothesis put forward by Laeng & Teodorescu regarding imagery or visualization. The hypothesis states that scanpath done during perception of an object or scene is reenacted during imagery of the same object or scene. In addition it claims that the reenactment has a positive functional role in memory retrieval. This paper cannot confirm nor refute the hypothesis put forward regarding scanpath reenactments, due to possible biased data; but on the basis of experimental evidence has to refute the hypothesis regarding scanpaths eenactments functional role in memory retrieval concerning long term memory. These conclusion are then discussed in perspective to the present dominant imagery theories and it empirical implications in relation to other empirical evidence. The experiment conducted consisted of three phases. First participant viewed four different pictures while eye-movements were measured. Secondly they were instructed to visualize the stimuli and subsequently describe it verbally; eye-movements were measured both during visualization and description. The scanpath generated were then analyzed using to different analysis methods. First an analysis were based on the pictorial material generated using iVeiw 3.01 and subsequently and analysis based on fixations percentage were conducted.