Spatial Term Variety Reflected in Eye Movements on Visual Scenes

Verbal descriptions of spatial configurations open a window to a specific aspect of visual cognition relevant to the interpretation of topological relations in the visual world. The present study reports an experimental investigation of the production of spatial prepositions by human participants while they verbally described visual stimuli within a stimuli battery commonly utilized in relevant research. The analysis of participants' eye movements revealed a relationship between the variety of spatial terms in the given language and native speakers' fixation patterns on the stimuli. A broader spectrum of spatial expressions, describing the same visual scene, is related to longer and more frequent fixations on the stimuli. The findings reflect cognitive processes, as indicated by oculomotor control variables, related to the verbal expression of spatial relationships.