Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 17, 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
Strategic modulation of the fixation-offset effect: dissociable effects of target probability on prosaccades and
Leon Gmeindl1, Andrew Rontal, Patricia A Reuter-Lorenz
1Cognition & Perception, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-1109, USA. lgmeindl@umich.edu
Abstract:
In several previous experiments examining the effects of participants' expectations on oculomotor performance, the manipulation of target probability has been confounded with factors such as target occurrence and saccade frequency. We report results from three experiments that manipulated target probability in isolation from systematic variations in such bottom-up factors. We present evidence for trial-by-trial, top-down modulation of the fixation-offset effect in prosaccade latency. Furthermore, fixation-stimulus offset and target-probability manipulations had additive effects on antisaccade latency, suggesting that these factors influence separable neural processes engaged for antisaccade performance. Based on these findings, we suggest that cognitive processes utilizing target-probability information influence task processes engaged for prosaccades that differ from those engaged for antisaccades.
