I see you remembering: What eye movements can reveal about process characteristics of prospective memory

• Eye movement statistics to investigate processes underlying prospective memory task
• Direct comparison of free viewing, PM and visual search in repeated measures design
• Visual viewing strategy of misses in PM task comparable to free viewing
• Visual viewing strategy in PM hits is between free viewing and visual search.
• Individual differences in solving the PM task reflected in other tasks as well.

Prospective memory performance describes the delayed execution of an intended action. As this requires a mixture of memory and attentional control functions, current research aims at delineating the specific processes associated with solving a prospective memory task. Therefore, the current study measured, analysed and compared eye movements of participants who performed a prospective memory, a free viewing, and a visual search task. By keeping constant the prospective memory cue as well as the context of tasks, we aimed at putting the processes of solving prospective memory tasks into context. The results show, that when a prospective memory task is missed, the continuous gaze behaviour is rather similar to the gaze behaviour during free viewing. When the prospective memory task is successfully solved, on the other hand, average gaze behaviour is between free viewing and visual search. Furthermore, individual differences in eye movements were found between low and high performers. Our data suggest that a prospective memory task can be solved in different ways, therefore different processes can be observed.