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L.S. Vygotsky associates the development of higher mental functions (HMF) with an individual’s mastery of their own behaviour as the highest level of development. Two lines in the development of HMF was stated: physiological and cultural. Thus, analyzing the formation of specific physiological functions presumably indicates the development of certain HMF. Since the visual perception system includes visual memory, attention, and hand-eye coordination, we hypothesize that parameters related to eye movements may reflect the level of development of such HMF as visual-spatial memory and visual attention. The aim of the paper was to show, that visuo-spatial memory and visual attention can be reflected by oculomotor reactions. Forty-seven healthy children from preschool classes took part in our study: 23 females (6,76±0,32 y.o.) and 24 males (6,74±0,31 y.o.). The visuo-spatial working memory and attention were assessed with Russian version of subtest called Memory for designs (MfD, NEPSY-II). Participants remembered the content and location of each graphical picture in 10 seconds.The procedure included four experimental tasks. Eye movements were recorded with the infrared video-recorded eye-tracker Pupil Labs Invisible (Pupil Labs GmbH). Children with higher levels of spatial score made more fixations (p <0.01). Oculomotor reactions in relation to one stimulus gradually decreased from the first to the fourth task (0,001 <p <0,01). The present study showed a close connection between visuo-spatial memory and oculomotor control in preschool children with different levels of spatial memory. Our results shows that mental functions are reflected by oculomotor reactions and emphasize the spreading distribution of attention on the stimulus material in accordance with the increase in the number of stimuli from the first to the fourth task. Therefore, the application of eye-tracking systems is important in assessing the state of higher mental functions and the entire network.

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