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Updated: May 16, 2026
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Investigating the Deployment of Visual Attention Before Accurate and Averaging Saccades via Eye Tracking and Assessment of Visual Sensitivity
Published on: March 18, 2019
Adaptive deployment of spatial and feature-based attention before saccades
Alex L White1, Martin Rolfs, Marisa Carrasco
1Department of Psychology, New York University, 6 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003, USA. alex.white@nyu.edu
Vision Research
|November 14, 2012
Summary
Pre-saccadic attention shifts visual sensitivity to upcoming targets. Recent experiences flexibly guide this attention to relevant locations and features, influencing visual perception.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Visual Perception
- Oculomotor Control
Background:
- Visual attention enhances sensitivity at attended locations.
- Pre-saccadic attention automatically shifts sensitivity to the target of the next eye movement (saccade).
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how perceptual factors, independent of eye movement plans, modulate pre-saccadic attention.
- To determine if recent experience influences the distribution of pre-saccadic attention across space and features.
Main Methods:
- Participants made saccades to visual targets (moving dot patches).
- A brief luminance probe's detectability was measured at unpredictable locations.
- The influence of probe location and motion direction, relative to target location and motion, was analyzed across trials.
Main Results:
- Visual sensitivity was enhanced at the saccade target location (spatial attention).
- This spatial attention effect strengthened when the previous probe appeared at the previous target location.
- Feature-based attention (enhanced sensitivity to probes moving in similar directions) occurred only when recent motion history matched target motion history.
Conclusions:
- Implicit cognitive processes, shaped by recent experience, dynamically modulate pre-saccadic attention.
- Pre-saccadic attention flexibly allocates resources to potentially relevant locations and features based on learned contingencies.
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