How Do Women and Men Look at the Past? Large Scanpath in Women during Autobiographical Retrieval-A Preliminary Study

While research has consistently demonstrated how autobiographical memory triggers visual exploration, prior studies did not investigate gender differences in this domain. We thus compared eye movement between women and men while performing an autobiographical retrieval task. We invited 35 women and 35 men to retrieve autobiographical memories while their gaze was monitored by an eye tracker. We further investigated gender differences in eye movement and autobiographical specificity, that is, the ability to retrieve detailed memories. The analysis demonstrated shorter fixations, larger duration and amplitude of saccades, and higher autobiographical specificity in women than in men. The significant gender differences in eye movement disappeared after controlling for autobiographical specificity. When retrieving autobiographical memory, female participants generated a large scan with short fixation and high saccade amplitude, while male participants increased their fixation duration and showed poorer gaze scan. The large saccades in women during autobiographical retrieval may constitute an exploratory gaze behavior enabling better autobiographical memory functioning, which is reflected by the larger number of autobiographical details retrieved compared to men.

Automated summary

This study compared the eye movement differences between men and women during autobiographical memory retrieval. The findings showed that women had shorter fixations, longer duration and amplitude of saccades, and higher autobiographical specificity compared to men. However, these gender differences in eye movement disappeared after controlling for autobiographical specificity. Female participants generated a larger scan with shorter fixation and higher saccade amplitude during autobiographical retrieval, whereas male participants increased their fixation duration and showed poorer gaze scan. The large saccades in women during autobiographical retrieval may contribute to better autobiographical memory functioning and the retrieval of more autobiographical details compared to men.