Saliency response in superior colliculus at the future saccade goal predicts fixation duration during free viewing of dynamic scenes.

Eye movements in daily life occur in rapid succession and often without a predefined goal. Using a free viewing task, we examined how fixation duration prior to a saccade correlates to visual saliency and neuronal activity in the superior colliculus (SC) at the saccade goal. Rhesus monkeys (three male) watched videos of natural, dynamic, scenes while eye movements were tracked and, simultaneously, neurons were recorded in the superficial and intermediate layers of the superior colliculus (SCs and SCi respectively), a midbrain structure closely associated with gaze, attention, and saliency coding.

Visual statistical learning requires attention.

Statistical learning is a person's ability to automatically learn environmental regularities through passive exposure. Since the earliest studies of statistical learning in infants, it has been debated exactly how "passive" this learning can be (i.e.

Attentional Capture and Control.

The current review presents an integrated tripartite framework for understanding attentional control, emphasizing the interaction and competition among top-down, bottom-up, and selection-history influences. It focuses on attentional capture, which refers to conditions in which salient objects or events receive attentional priority even when they are inconsistent with the goals, tasks, and intentions of the observer. The review describes which components of the tripartite framework are in play when distraction by salient objects is prevented and the conditions in which there is no control over the occurrence of attentional capture.