Attentional biases during steering behavior

Abstract

In the current study, we examine eye movements of human operators during a combined steering and discrimination task. In this task, observers had to alternate their gaze between a central steering task and a discrimination task in the periphery. Our results show that the observer's gaze behavior is influenced by the motion direction of the steering task. Saccade reaction times (SRTs) of saccades to the discrimination target were shorter if the target appeared in the steering direction. SRTs back to the steering task were shorter when the steering target moved away from the discrimination target. These effects are likely the result of motion-related attention shifts and an interaction of the saccadic and smooth pursuit eye movement system. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.