When remembering an object at a given location, participants tend to return their gaze to that location even after the object has disappeared, known as Looking-at-Nothing (LAN). However, it is unclear whether LAN is associated with better memory performance. Previous studies reporting beneficial effects of LAN have often not systematically manipulated or assessed eye movements. We asked 20 participants to remember the location and identity of eight objects arranged in a circle, shown for 5 s. Participants were prompted to judge whether a location statement (e.g., “Star Right”) was correct or incorrect, or referred to a previously unseen object. During memory retrieval, participants either fixated in the screen center or were free to move their eyes. Results reveal no difference in memory accuracy and response time between free-viewing and fixation while a LAN effect was found for saccades during free viewing, but not for microsaccades during fixation. Memory performance was better in those free-viewing trials in which participants made a saccade to the critical location, and scaled with saccade accuracy. These results indicate that saccade kinematics might be related to both memory performance and memory retrieval processes, but the strength of their link would differ between individuals and task demands.

当记住给定位置的物体时，即使在物体消失后，参与者也倾向于将视线返回到该位置，这被称为无视（LAN）。但是，尚不清楚 LAN 是否与更好的内存性能相关。先前报告 LAN 有益效果的研究通常没有系统地操纵或评估眼球运动。我们要求 20 名参与者记住排列成圆圈的 8 个物体的位置和身份，显示 5 秒。参与者被提示判断一个位置陈述（例如，“Star Right”）是正确还是不正确，或者是指之前未见过的物体。在记忆检索过程中，参与者要么专注于屏幕中心，要么可以自由移动他们的眼睛。结果显示，自由观看和注视之间的记忆准确度和响应时间没有差异，而在自由观看期间发现眼跳会出现 LAN 效应，但在注视过程中微眼跳则没有。在那些自由观看试验中，参与者的记忆性能更好，在这些试验中，参与者向关键位置进行了扫视，并根据扫视精度进行了缩放。这些结果表明，扫视运动学可能与记忆性能和记忆检索过程有关，但它们的联系强度因个人和任务需求而异。