Directional processing within the perceptual span during visual target localization
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Updated: Jun 13, 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
Harold H Greene1, Alexander Pollatsek, Kathleen Masserang
1Department of Psychology, University of Detroit Mercy, Detroit, MI, USA. greenehh@udmercy.edu
Abstract:
In order to understand how processing occurs within the effective field of vision (i.e. perceptual span) during visual target localization, a gaze-contingent moving mask procedure was used to disrupt parafoveal information pickup along the vertical and the horizontal visual fields. When the mask was present within the horizontal visual field, there was a relative increase in saccade probability along the nearby vertical field, but not along the opposite horizontal field. When the mask was present either above or below fixation, saccades downwards were reduced in magnitude. This pattern of data suggests that parafoveal information selection (indexed by probability of saccade direction) and the extent of spatial parafoveal processing in a given direction (indexed by saccade amplitude) may be controlled by somewhat different mechanisms.
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