The predictability of saccadic latency in a novel voluntary oculomotor task

Hallett, Peter; Adams, Beth

doi:10.1016/0042-6989(80)90019-x

Cited by 278 publications

(140 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…The antisaccade task, first introduced by Hallett in 1978 (also see Hallett & Adams, 1980), involves the presentation of an abrupt-onset stimulus to the right or left of fixation in an otherwise empty visual field. The subject's task is to detect the onset using peripheral vision and rapidly look in the opposite direction.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attentional capture and aging: Implications for visual search performance and oculomotor control.

Kramer¹,

Hahn²,

Irwin³

et al. 1999

Psychology and Aging

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Two studies examined potential age-related differences in attentional capture. Subjects were instructed to move their eyes as quickly as possible to a color singleton target and to identify a small letter located inside it. On half the trials, a new stimulus (i.e., a sudden onset) appeared simultaneously with the presentation of the color singleton target. The onset was always a task-irrelevant distractor. Response times were lengthened, for both young and old adults, whenever an onset distractor appeared, despite the fact that subjects reported being unaware of the appearance of the abrupt onset. Eye scan strategies were also disrupted by the appearance of the onset distractors. On about 40% of the trials on which an onset appeared, subjects made an eye movement to the task-irrelevant onset before moving their eyes to the target. Fixations close to the onset were brief, suggesting parallel programming of a reflexive eye movement to the onset and goal-directed eye movement to the target. Results are discussed in terms of age-related sparing of the attentional and oculomotor processes that underlie attentional capture.The interaction of top-down or goal-directed and bottom-up or stimulus-driven influences on attentional control has become a central issue in the study of visual attention (Martin-Emerson & Kramer, 1997;Theeuwes, 1995;Yantis, 1996). When driving an automobile in unfamiliar surroundings, people spend a great deal of time intentionally directing their attention to other automobiles, pedestrians, and features of the roadway that are important to the task of driving. However, salient features of the environment, such as a brightly flashing neon sign on the side of the roadway or a loud and abrupt protestation from one of two children sitting in the backseat arguing about a favorite toy, also appear to grab or capture people's attention regardless of the intention to attend to these events.Indeed, the stimulus-driven capture of attention can have a positive influence on the task at hand, such as the sound of squealing tires alerting a driver to a potential accident ahead. However, attentional capture can also have negative consequences such as in the example above in which the driver is attending to the bright roadway sign rather than other automobiles. Analogs of these situations, that is, settings in which positive and negative consequences are realized with attentional capture, have been examined in the laboratory. This research was supported by Grant AG14966 from the National Institute on Aging. We would like to thank Angela Glass and Meredith Minear for their assistance in running the participants.Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Arthur F. Kramer, Beckman Institute, University of Illinois, 405 North Mathews Avenue, Urbana. Illinois 61801. Electronic mail may be sent to akramer@s.psych.uiuc.edu.For example, Yantis and colleagues (Yantis & Hillstrom, 1994;Yantis & Jones, 1991;Yantis & Jonides, 1984 have conducted a number of studies in which subjects searched for a predefi...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attentional capture and aging: Implications for visual search performance and oculomotor control.

Kramer¹,

Hahn²,

Irwin³

et al. 1999

Psychology and Aging

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“…In the antisaccade task, observers are required to make an eye-movement in the direction opposite to that where the visual target is located (Hallet 1978;Hallet and Adams 1980). In the memoryguided saccade task, participants are shown a visual target but are required to withhold the immediate orienting response, and to make this eye-movement only after a short time-interval during which the location of the target must be held in short-term memory (Fischer and Boch 1981).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distractor effects on saccade trajectories: a comparison of prosaccades, antisaccades, and memory-guided saccades

2007

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The present study investigated the contribution of the presence of a visual signal at the saccade goal on saccade trajectory deviations and measured distractor-related inhibition as indicated by deviation away from an irrelevant distractor. Performance in a prosaccade task where a visual target was present at the saccade goal was compared to performance in an anti-and memory-guided saccade task. In the latter two tasks no visual signal is present at the location of the saccade goal. It was hypothesized that if saccade deviation can be ultimately explained in terms of relative activation levels between the saccade goal location and distractor locations, the absence of a visual stimulus at the goal location will increase the competition evoked by the distractor and aVect saccade deviations. The results of Experiment 1 showed that saccade deviation away from a distractor varied signiWcantly depending on whether a visual target was presented at the saccade goal or not: when no visual target was presented, saccade deviation away from a distractor was increased compared to when the visual target was present. The results of Experiments 2-4 showed that saccade deviation did not systematically change as a function of time since the oVset of the target.Moreover, Experiments 3 and 4 revealed that the disappearance of the target immediately increased the eVect of a distractor on saccade deviations, suggesting that activation at the target location decays very rapidly once the visual signal has disappeared from the display.

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“…A somewhat analogous example is afforded by the antisaccade task, wherein subjects are cued to look in a direction opposite to a target (Antoniades et al, 2013). This maneuver increases saccadic latency by 20 -80 ms (Hallett and Adams, 1980).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eye Choice for Acquisition of Targets in Alternating Strabismus

2014

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In strabismus, potentially either eye can inform the brain about the location of a target so that an accurate saccade can be made. Sixteen human subjects with alternating exotropia were tested dichoptically while viewing stimuli on a tangent screen. Each trial began with a fixation cross visible to only one eye. After the subject fixated the cross, a peripheral target visible to only one eye flashed briefly. The subject's task was to look at it. As a rule, the eye to which the target was presented was the eye that acquired the target. However, when stimuli were presented in the far nasal visual field, subjects occasionally performed a "crossover" saccade by placing the other eye on the target. This strategy avoided the need to make a large adducting saccade. In such cases, information about target location was obtained by one eye and used to program a saccade for the other eye, with a corresponding latency increase. In 10/16 subjects, targets were presented on some trials to both eyes. Binocular sensory maps were also compiled to delineate the portions of the visual scene perceived with each eye. These maps were compared with subjects' pattern of eye choice for target acquisition. There was a correspondence between suppression scotoma maps and the eye used to acquire peripheral targets. In other words, targets were fixated by the eye used to perceive them. These studies reveal how patients with alternating strabismus, despite eye misalignment, manage to localize and capture visual targets in their environment.

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The predictability of saccadic latency in a novel voluntary oculomotor task

Cited by 278 publications

References 19 publications

Attentional capture and aging: Implications for visual search performance and oculomotor control.

Attentional capture and aging: Implications for visual search performance and oculomotor control.

Distractor effects on saccade trajectories: a comparison of prosaccades, antisaccades, and memory-guided saccades

Eye Choice for Acquisition of Targets in Alternating Strabismus

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