Abstract
We investigated the mental rehearsal of complex action instructions by recording spontaneous eye movements of healthy adults as they looked at objects on a monitor. Participants heard consecutive instructions, each of the form "move [object] to [location]''. Instructions were only to be executed after a go signal, by manipulating all objects successively with a mouse. Participants re-inspected previously mentioned objects already while listening to further instructions. This rehearsal behavior broke down after 4 instructions, coincident with participants' instruction span, as determined from subsequent execution accuracy. These results suggest that spontaneous eye movements while listening to instructions predict their successful execution.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 249-259 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Experimental Brain Research |
Volume | 214 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Oct 2011 |