Top-down controlled eye movements in visual search tasks

Abstract

An analysis of the first and following saccades made during a complex visual search task is reported. The observer's task was the search for a face or building (content) with the conjoint features of ideal filtering and contrast. Evidence for a stimulus-driven information processing and for a search intention processing was found. The probability of correct hits and of saccades, landing on a pattern sharing two features with the target, was increased after prior exposure of this target. We further address the issue of what information might be held in trans-saccadic memory. Carryover effects from saccadic eye movements of nonhits to hits were found with respect to the preceding processing time. Search intention (measured using the similarity of fixated to target pattern) also increased the probability of the following hit. This carryover effect of information from one to the following saccade is not effective on a longer time scale. The saccadic memory is in contradiction to results using simpler conjoint tasks or a search for a target, which does not include search for content. © 2005 Japanese Psychological Association. Published by Blackwell Publishers Ltd.