Eye movements during comprehension of spoken scene descriptions

A recent eyetracking experiment has indicated that, while staring at a blank white display, participants engaged in imagery tend to make eye movements that mimic the directionality of spatial expressions in the speech stream (Spivey & Geng, 2000). This result is consistent with a spatial mental models account of language comprehension (e.g., Johnson-Laird, 1983), adds a motor component to evidence for activation of perceptual mechanisms during visual imagery (e.g., Kosslyn, Thompson, Kim, & Alpert, 1995), and fits with claims regarding the embodiment of cognition (e.g., Varela, Thompson, & Rosch, 1991). However, some methodological concerns remain. We report some preliminary observations, and a controlled experiment, in which these methodological concerns are resolved. We demonstrate that, even when the speech includes no instructions to imagine anything, and even when participants' eyes are closed, participants tend to make eye movements in the same direction land especially along the same axis) as the described scene when listening to a spatially extended scene description.