Abstract
The decrease in sensitivity to spatial displacement which accompanies a voluntary horizontal saccadic eye movement was measured as a function of the length of the saccade. Threshold for detecting the displacement increased linearly from about 0.3° to 1.2° as saccade length increased from 4° to 12°. The variability (standard deviation) of the discrimination increased linearly with saccade length as well, and hence also linearly with the displacement threshold. These results, along with our previous finding that the increase is not a consequence of the saccadically generated spatiotemporal smearing of the retinal image (Li & Matin, 1990), support the proposal that displacement detection is based on a constant internal signal/noise ratio whose denominator is a measure of the variability of the extraretinal signal regarding eye position, and that the reduction in sensitivity is a result of a transient increase of this variability in the temporal neighborhood of a saccade.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Bischof, N., &Kramer, E. (1968). Untersuchungen und Überlegungen zur Richtungswahrnehmung bei willkürlichen sakkadischen Augenbewegungen.Psychologische Forschung,32, 185–218.
Bridgeman, B., Hendry, D., &Stark, L. (1975) Failure to detect displacement of the visual world during saccadic eye movements.Vision Research,15, 719–722.
Bridgeman, B., &Stark, L. (1979) Omnidirectional increase in threshold for image shifts during saccadic eye movements.Perception & Psychophysics,25, 241–243.
Grusser, O. J. (1986) Some recent studies on the quantitative analysis of efference copy mechanisms in visual perception.Acta Psychologica,63, 49–62.
Hallett, P. E., &Lightstone, A. D. (1976). Saccadic eye movements towards stimuli triggered by prior saccades.Vision Research,16, 99–106.
Honda, H. (1989). Perceptual localization of visual stimuli flashed during saccades.Perception & Psychophysics,45, 162–174.
Li, W. (1989).A quantitative study of the accuracy and the precision of the visual perception of direction immediately after voluntary saccades Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Columbia University.
Li, W., &Matin, L. (1988). Saccadic suppression of displacement: Separate influences of saccade size and of retinal eccentricity.Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science,29(Suppl.), 132
Li, W., &Matin, L. (1990). Saccadic suppression of displacement. Influence of postsaccadic exposure duration and of saccadic stimulus elimination.Vision Research,30, 945–955.
Mateeff, S. (1978). Saccadic eye movements and localization of visual stimuli.Perception & Psychophysics,24, 215–224.
Matin, E., Clymer, B., &Matin, L. (1972). Metacontrast and saccadic suppression.Science,178, 179–182.
Matin, L. (1972). Eye movements and perceived visual direction In D. Jameson & L. Hurvich (Eds.),Handbook of sensory physiology (Vol. 7, Pt. 4, pp. 331–380). Heidelberg: Springer.
Matin, L. (1986). Visual localization and eye movements. In K. Boff, L. Kaufman, & J. Thomas (Eds.),Handbook of perception and human performance (Vol. 1, pp 20-1–20-45). New York: Wiley.
Matin, L., &Matin, E. (1972). Visual perception of direction and voluntary saccadic eye movements.Bibliotheca Ophthalmologica,82, 358–368
Matin, L., Matin, E., &Pearce, D. G. (1969). Visual perception of direction when voluntary saccades occur. I. Relation of visual direction of a fixation target extinguished before a saccade to a flash presented during die saccade.Perception & Psychophysics,5, 65–80
Matin, L., Matin, E., &Pola, J. (1970). Visual perception of direc tion when voluntary saccades occur: II. Relation of visual direction of a fixation target extinguished before a saccade to a subsequent test flash presented before the saccade.Perception & Psychophysics,8, 9–14
Matin, L., &Pearce, D. G. (1965). Visual perception of direction for stimuli flashed during voluntary saccadic eye movements.Science.148, 1485–1488.
Matin, L., Pola, J., Matin, E., &Picoult, E. (1981). Vernier discrimination with sequentially-flashed lines’ Roles of eye movements, retinal offsets and short-term memory.Vision Research,21, 647–656
Monahan, J. S. (1972). Extraretinal feedback and visual localization.Perception & Psychophysics,12, 349–353.
O’regan, J. K. (1984). Retinal versus extraretinal influences in flash localization during saccadic eye movements in the presence of a visi-ble background.Perception & Psychophysics,36, 1–14.
Pola, J. (1976). Voluntary saccades, eye position and perceived visual direction In R. A. Monty & J. W. Senders (Eds.),Eye movements and psychological processes (pp. 245–254). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Shebilske, W. L. (1977). Visuomotor coordination in visual direction and position constancies. In W. Epstein (Ed.),Stability and constancy in visual perception: Mechanisms and processes (pp. 23–69). New York: Wiley
Stark, L., Kong, R., Schwartz, S., Hendry, D., &Bridgeman, B. (1976). Saccadic suppression of image displacement.Vision Research,16, 1185–1187.
Whipple, W. R., &Wallach, H. (1978). Direction-specific motion thresholds for abnormal image shifts during saccadic eye movement.Perception & Psychophysics,24, 349–355.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This research was supported by Grant EY05929 from NEI, by NIH, and by Grant BNS 8617059 from NSF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Li, W., Matin, L. The influence of saccade length on the saccadic suppression of displacement detection. Perception & Psychophysics 48, 453–458 (1990). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03211589
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03211589