Eye Tracking as a Tool for the Detection of Simulated Memory Impairment

Effects of feigned memory impairment on eye-movement behavior were investigated. Participants encoded scene-face pairs and were tested with displays containing three studied faces preceded by a studied scene. Half of these displays contained the face that had previously been associated with the scene cue, while the remainders did not. Participants made presence/absence judgments while eye movements were recorded and either attempted to perform optimally (controls) or feign impairment (simulators). While explicit recognition was at chance among simulators, both groups looked disproportionately at associates early in the trial. The magnitude of this effect was matched across groups and significant even when simulators made incorrect recognition responses. Eye tracking may have potential as a tool for the detection of concealed recognition and warrants further research into its efficacy and underlying mechanisms.