Asymmetries of saccadic eye movements in oriented-line-target search

Visual search for a line-element target differing sufficiently in orientation from a background of line elements can be performed rapidly, effortlessly, and without eye movements. There is, however, a response asymmetry: detection is better with an oblique target element in vertical or horizontal ba...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Vision research (Oxford) 2000, Vol.40 (1), p.65-70
Main Authors: Foster, David H., Savage, C.Julie, Mannan, Sabira, Ruddock, Keith H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Anatomical correlates of behavior
Behavioral psychophysiology
Biological and medical sciences
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Orientation sensitivity
Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology
Photic Stimulation - methods
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Reaction Time
Saccades - physiology
Saccadic eye movements
Search asymmetry
Target detection
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Visual search for a line-element target differing sufficiently in orientation from a background of line elements can be performed rapidly, effortlessly, and without eye movements. There is, however, a response asymmetry: detection is better with an oblique target element in vertical or horizontal background elements than when these orientations are interchanged. If the underlying visual mechanisms also provide an input to the oculomotor system, then a similar asymmetry should be observed in eye-movement behaviour. To test this hypothesis, an experiment was undertaken in which eye movements were recorded while subjects searched for a line-element target in background of line elements; orientations were chosen from the range 0°, 30°, 60°, and 90° to the vertical. Data from three subjects showed that (1) latencies for the initial saccade, (2) angular errors in initial-saccade direction, and (3) manual response times depended similarly on the combination of target- and background-element orientations, performance being better for 30° or 60° targets in 0° or 90° backgrounds than vice-versa. The early orientation-selective mechanisms responsible for the rapid detection of oriented-line targets are probably the same as those providing signals for saccadic eye movements.
ISSN:0042-6989
1878-5646
DOI:10.1016/S0042-6989(99)00164-9