Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Covert visual search within and beyond the effective oculomotor range

Smith, D.T.; Ball, K.; Ellison, A.

Covert visual search within and beyond the effective oculomotor range Thumbnail


Authors

K. Ball



Abstract

Covert spatial attention is tightly coupled to the eye-movement system, but the precise nature of this coupling remains contentious. Recent research has argued that covert attention and overt eye-movements many share a common biological limit, such that covert exogenous orienting of attention is limited to stimuli that fall within the range of possible eye movements (the effective oculomotor range: EOMR). However, this conclusion is based on a single experimental paradigm: The Posner cueing task. Here, we examine the extent to which covert spatial attention is limited to the EOMR in visual search. Exogenous attention was assessed using a feature search task and endogenous attention assessed using a conjunction search task. The tasks were performed monocularly with the dominant eye in the frontal position or abducted by 40°. In the abducted position stimuli in the temporal hemispace could be seen, but could not become the goal of a saccadic eye-movement (i.e. they were beyond the EOMR). In contrast, stimuli in the nasal hemifield remained within the EOMR. We observed a significant effect of eye-abduction on feature search, such that search was slower when targets appeared beyond the EOMR. In contrast, eye-abduction had no effect on search times during conjunction search. Set size did not interact with target location or eye-position. It is concluded that optimal covert orienting of exogenous attention in visual search is restricted to locations within the effective oculomotor range.

Citation

Smith, D., Ball, K., & Ellison, A. (2014). Covert visual search within and beyond the effective oculomotor range. Vision Research, 95, 11-17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2013.12.003

Journal Article Type Article
Online Publication Date Dec 12, 2013
Publication Date Feb 1, 2014
Deposit Date Jan 6, 2014
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Vision Research
Print ISSN 0042-6989
Publisher Elsevier
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 95
Pages 11-17
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2013.12.003
Keywords Attention, Exogenous, Eye movement, Endogenous, Oculomotor, Covert visual search.

Files

Accepted Journal Article (546 Kb)
PDF

Copyright Statement
NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Vision research. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Vision research, 95, February 2014, 10.1016/j.visres.2013.12.003





You might also like



Downloadable Citations