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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 1, 2025

Investigating the Deployment of Visual Attention Before Accurate and Averaging Saccades via Eye Tracking and Assessment of Visual Sensitivity

Investigating the Deployment of Visual Attention Before Accurate and Averaging Saccades via Eye Tracking and Assessment of Visual Sensitivity

Published on: March 18, 2019

Saccadic scanpath length: an index for human threat conditioning.

Yanfang Xia¹, Filip Melinscak², Dominik R Bach^3,4

¹University of Zurich, Lenggstrasse 31, CH-8032, Zurich, Switzerland. yanfang.xia@uzh.ch.

Behavior Research Methods

|November 10, 2020

Summary

Researchers quantified human threat conditioning by analyzing eye movements. Shorter scanpath length during conditioned stimulus (CS) presentation, specifically CS+, indicates threat learning, offering a new measurement method.

Keywords:

Attentional bias Fear conditioning Pavlovian conditioning Saccadic eye movement Threat memory

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience
Behavioral Science

Background:

Threat-conditioned cues are known to capture attention via bottom-up processes.
Quantifying this phenomenon typically involves cue competition paradigms.
Gaze patterns offer a potential avenue for measuring human threat conditioning.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate scanpath length as a measure of human threat conditioning.
To quantify threat conditioning using visual search patterns during conditioned stimulus (CS) presentation.
To assess the retrodictive validity of scanpath length compared to established measures.

Main Methods:

A delayed threat conditioning paradigm was employed with full-screen monochrome conditioned stimuli (CS).
Scanpath length, a summary statistic of visual search, was measured during CS presentation.
Experiments included replication, extinction sessions, and variations with auditory CS and fixation instructions.

Main Results:

Shorter scanpath length was observed during CS+ compared to CS- presentation.
Maximum retrodictive validity for distinguishing CS+ and CS- was found in a 2-s window before US onset.
Longer fixation duration and central screen fixation contributed to shorter scanpath length for CS+.
Scanpath differences extinguished during an extinction session and were absent with auditory CS.

Conclusions:

Scanpath length serves as a valid visual search summary statistic for quantifying threat conditioning.
This method offers complementary measurement potential, comparable in retrodictive validity to skin conductance responses.
Findings highlight the role of visual search patterns in threat learning and attention.