The visual analog: evidence for a preattentive representation across saccades

Earlier research supports the idea that transsaccadic memory involves a relatively sparse and abstract representation with little detail, much like visual short-term memory (VSTM) within a fixation. We examined whether transsaccadic memory is restricted to VSTM representations or whether it also includes a maskable, short-lived, and more detailed representation, referred to as the visual analog. First, a within-fixation change detection experiment is reported, aimed at clarifying the distinction between VSTM and the visual analog, and also the relationship between the two components. We then report 4 transsaccadic change detection experiments that make use of a modified version of the blanking paradigm originally introduced by H. Deubel, W. X. Schneider, and B. Bridgeman (1996). The results support the idea that transsaccadic memory includes a VSTM representation for attended objects (i.e., the saccade target) and a visual analog component for both attended and non-attended objects.