Visual search: eye movements and peripheral vision

The visual search task allows investigation of the way in which central processes can influence the programming of saccadic eye movements. In this paper, a simple search task is studied in which a target is presented in a ring-shaped display of eight stimuli. The subject is required to locate the target with a saccadic eye movement. Targets were colored disks and the task was to search for a target of a particular color. Sensory factors (when all nontargets are identical, the target stands out) and central factor (prespecification of the target) both contribute to search efficiency. When the display contains a double target, saccades sometimes land at an intermediate position between the two targets. This shows that the signal delivered by the search procedure is not necessarily highly localized.