Task-relevant information availability shapes eye movements and perceptual judgment confidence.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Oculomotor Research
• Decision Science

Background:

• Gaze direction is influenced by affective rewards.
• The impact of non-affective informational value on oculomotor decisions is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if informational value, independent of affective cues, can shape eye movement decisions.
• To explore the relationship between learned preferences, perceptual performance, and metacognitive confidence.

Main Methods:

• Participants performed a perceptual judgment task where information availability at saccade targets was probabilistically varied.
• Implicit biases were measured by observing gaze direction preferences.
• Saccade latency, peak velocity, perceptual accuracy, and confidence ratings were recorded.

Main Results:

• Participants developed implicit biases, avoiding low-information regions.
• Saccade latencies were longer toward non-preferred regions, mirroring reward learning patterns.
• Perceptual accuracy and saccade peak velocity were unaffected; confidence was higher for preferred regions.

Conclusions:

• Informational value can be implicitly learned to guide eye movements, akin to reward learning.
• Subjective confidence can be linked to learned preferences without altering perceptual performance.
• Oculomotor decision-making and post-perceptual judgment confidence are shaped by informational value, separate from affective cues.