Seeing the Future: Anticipatory Eye Gaze as a Marker of Memory

Human memory is typically studied by direct questioning, and the recollection of events is investigated through verbal reports. Thus, current research confounds memory per-se with its report. Critically, the ability to investigate memory retrieval in populations with deficient verbal ability is limited. Here, using the MEGA (Memory Episode Gaze Anticipation) paradigm, we show that monitoring anticipatory gaze using eye tracking can quantify memory retrieval without verbal report. Upon repeated viewing of movie clips, eye gaze patterns anticipating salient events can quantify their memory traces seconds before these events appear on the screen. A series of five experiments with a total of 145 participants using either tailor-made animations or naturalistic movies consistently reveal that accumulated gaze proximity to the event can index memory. Machine learning-based classification can identify whether a given viewing is associated with memory for the event based on single-trial data of gaze features. Detailed comparison to verbal reports establishes that anticipatory gaze marks recollection of associative memory about the event, whereas pupil dilation captures familiarity. Finally, anticipatory gaze reveals beneficial effects of sleep on memory retrieval without verbal report, illustrating its broad applicability across cognitive research and clinical domains.