Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 3, 2026
Investigating the Deployment of Visual Attention Before Accurate and Averaging Saccades via Eye Tracking and Assessment of Visual Sensitivity
Published on: March 18, 2019
The omnipresent prolongation of visual fixations: saccades are inhibited by changes in situation and in subject's
S Pannasch1, S M Dornhoefer, P J Unema
1Department of Psychology, Dresden University of Technology, Dresden, Germany. pannasch@psyl.psych.tu-dresden.de
Abstract:
Presenting a distractor prolongs not only saccadic reaction times in paced tasks but also fixation durations in unpaced tasks. To investigate whether the effect of a distractor is a pure optomotor reflex, we used both visual and auditory distractors in an unpaced picture-viewing paradigm. Results show a distractor effect for both modalities. Analysis of data from previous studies showed similar effects, even in amodal shifts of attention. These findings challenge the hypothesis that the effect is modality-specific and suggest that the distractor effect may be another expression of the orienting reflex.
