Scrutinizing visual images: the role of gaze in mental imagery and memory.

•When visually imaging a previously seen shape observers move their eyes.•Gaze concentrates on empty regions where salient features originally appeared.•Gaze during imagery enacts gaze shown during perception of the same shape.•The fidelity of the enactment predicts memory accuracy for an object’s visuospatial properties.•Interfering with gaze during recall lowers the quality of the memory.