Previous memory research suggests that orthographically distinctive words (e.g., harpsichord) prevent people from encoding the relational information among individual words. In the current research, we replicated a previous study using eye tracking which allowed us to detect subtle memory processing behaviors. Participants were required to view and categorize four word lists as the eye tracking recorded their eye movements. Successive pairs of words were always shown on the screen at the same time. People in the orthographically common condition (OC) tended to have more eye movements between the items than the ones in the orthographically distinctive condition (OD). However, there was equivalently poor recall performance in both conditions when I conducted an additional recall test at the end. The research provides supportive evidence that orthographic distinctiveness affects the strategies people use during word memorization. In addition, the study sheds light on the potentiality of eye tracking for measuring relational processing.