The temporal dynamics of visual salience J Silvis, M Donk |
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Department of Cognitive Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands
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| Whenever a novel scene is abruptly presented, visual salience merely has a transient role to play. Only those eye movements that are initiated fast enough appear to be driven by salience, whereas long-latency saccades or consecutive saccades are primarily under goal-directed control. However, it is still unclear under which circumstances salience may affect oculomotor behavior at a later moment in time. In a series of experiments, we examined how sudden changes in luminance affect initial and consecutive saccades. The results demonstrate that the oculomotor system is particularly susceptible to sudden increases in local salience, whereas sudden salience decreases turn out not to affect consecutive saccades. This suggests that, even in the case of a pronounced luminance change, it is not the change itself that affects the movements of the eyes. Rather, only when a stimulus suddenly stands out more, it will be able to attract saccades. Taken together, it appears that although salience only has brief effects, it acts dynamically to allow the detection of distinct objects at any moment. The results will be discussed in terms of the implications for several views on visual selection. |
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