Retinal eccentricity modulates saliency-driven but not relevance-driven visual selection.

Where we move our eyes during visual search is controlled by the relative saliency and relevance of stimuli in the visual field. However, the visual field is not homogeneous, as both sensory representations and attention change with eccentricity. Here we present an experiment investigating how eccentricity differences between competing stimuli affect saliency- and relevance-driven selection.

The effects of eccentricity on attentional capture.

Visual attention may be captured by an irrelevant yet salient distractor, thereby slowing search for a relevant target. This phenomenon has been widely studied using the additional singleton paradigm in which search items are typically all presented at one and the same eccentricity. Yet, differences in eccentricity may well bias the competition between target and distractor.

Attentional suppression is in place before display onset.

Recent studies have shown that observers can learn to suppress a location that is most likely to contain a distractor. The current study investigates whether the statistically learned suppression is already in place, before, or implemented exactly at the moment participants expect the display to appear. Participants performed a visual search task in which a distractor was presented more frequently at the high-probability location (HPL) in a search display.

The eyes prefer targets nearby fixation: Quantifying eccentricity-dependent attentional biases in oculomotor selection.

An important function of peripheral vision is to provide the target of the next eye movement. Here we investigate the extent to which the eyes are biased to select a target closer to fixation over one further away. Participants were presented with displays containing two identical singleton targets and were asked to move their eyes to either one of them.

An attentional limbo: Saccades become momentarily non-selective in between saliency-driven and relevance-driven selection.

Human vision involves selectively directing the eyes to potential objects of interest. According to most prominent theories, selection is the quantal outcome of an ongoing competition between saliency-driven signals on the one hand, and relevance-driven signals on the other, with both types of signals continuously and concurrently projecting onto a common priority map. Here, we challenge this view.