Stimulus-dependent eye movements have been recognized as a potential confound in decoding visual working memory information from neural signals. Here we combined eye-tracking with representational geometry analyses to uncover the information in miniature gaze patterns while participants (n = 41) were cued to maintain visual object orientations. Although participants were discouraged from breaking fixation by means of real-time feedback, small gaze shifts (<1°) robustly encoded the to-be-maintained stimulus orientation, with evidence for encoding two sequentially presented orientations at the same time. The orientation encoding on stimulus presentation was object-specific, but it changed to a more object-independent format during cued maintenance, particularly when attention had been temporarily withdrawn from the memorandum. Finally, categorical reporting biases increased after unattended storage, with indications of biased gaze geometries already emerging during the maintenance periods before behavioural reporting. These findings disclose a wealth of information in gaze patterns during visuospatial working memory and indicate systematic changes in representational format when memory contents have been unattended.

刺激依赖性的眼球运动被认为是从神经信号解码视觉工作记忆信息的潜在混淆因素。在这里，我们将眼动追踪与表征几何分析相结合，以揭示微型凝视模式中的信息，同时提示参与者 （n = 41） 保持视觉对象方向。尽管通过实时反馈不鼓励参与者打破注视，但小的视线偏移 （<1°） 稳健地编码了要维持的刺激方向，有证据表明同时编码两个顺序呈现的方向。刺激呈现的方向编码是特定于对象的，但在提示维护期间，它变成了更独立于对象的格式，特别是当注意力暂时从备忘录中撤出时。最后，分类报告偏倚在无人值守存储后增加，在行为报告之前的维护期间已经出现了有偏见的凝视几何形状的迹象。这些发现揭示了视觉空间工作记忆期间注视模式的大量信息，并表明当记忆内容无人注意时，表征格式的系统性变化。