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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
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Prediction of complex stimuli across saccades
Corinna Osterbrink1,2, Arvid Herwig3,4
1Department of Psychology and Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany.
Journal of Vision
|February 23, 2021
Summary
The visual system predicts complex visual stimuli across eye movements (saccades) by learning associations between what is seen in the periphery and what is focused on. This visual prediction extends beyond simple features to real-world objects and faces.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Visual Perception
- Psychology
Background:
- The human visual system utilizes transsaccadic associations to predict visual information across eye movements (saccades).
- Previous research demonstrated this predictive capability for simple visual features like shape and size.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if transsaccadic predictions extend to complex visual stimuli, such as real-world objects and faces.
- To determine if new transsaccadic associations can be rapidly learned and applied to complex stimuli.
Main Methods:
- Participants learned new associations between peripheral and foveal stimuli during an acquisition phase.
- Experiments involved category changes for objects (fruits to balls) and gender changes for faces during saccades.
- Peripheral perception was tested by briefly presenting stimuli and assessing participant responses.
Main Results:
- Peripheral perception was significantly biased towards the learned associated foveal input in both object and face experiments.
- Transsaccadic predictions were demonstrated for complex, realistic stimuli, not just simple features.
- Evidence suggests rapid learning of multiple object-specific associations.
Conclusions:
- Transsaccadic prediction capabilities of the visual system are broader than previously thought, encompassing complex stimuli.
- The visual system can rapidly form and utilize object-specific transsaccadic associations.
- These findings advance our understanding of visual information processing during naturalistic eye movements.
