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Evidence for a dissociation between the control of oculomotor capture and disengagement

Born, Sabine ; Kerzel, Dirk ; Theeuwes, Jan

In: Experimental Brain Research, 2011, vol. 208, no. 4, p. 621-631

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    Titre
    • Evidence for a dissociation between the control of oculomotor capture and disengagement
    Auteur
    • Born, Sabine. Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l'Éducation, Université de Genève, 40 Boulevard du Pont d'Arve, 1205, Genève, Switzerland
    • Kerzel, Dirk. Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l'Éducation, Université de Genève, 40 Boulevard du Pont d'Arve, 1205, Genève, Switzerland
    • Theeuwes, Jan. Department of Cognitive Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Van der Boechorststraat 1, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
    Type de document
    • Postprint
    Langue
    • Anglais
    Publié dans
    • Experimental Brain Research, 2011, vol. 208, no. 4, p. 621-631. Springer-Verlag
    Autre version électronique
    Identifiant OAI-PMH
    • oai:doc.rero.ch:313283
    Summary
    The current study investigated whether capture of the eyes by a salient onset distractor and the disengagement of the eyes from that distractor are driven by the same or by different underlying control modes. A variant of the classic oculomotor capture task was used. Observers had to make a saccade to the only gray circle among red background circles. On some trials, a green (novel color), red (placeholder color) or gray (target color) distractor square was presented with sudden onset. Results showed that when participants reacted fast, oculomotor capture was primarily driven by bottom-up pop-out: both types of distractors (green and gray) that popped out among the red background elements showed more capture than a red distractor that did not pop-out. In contrast to initial capture, disengagement of the eyes from the distractor was driven by top-down target-distractor similarity effects. We also examined the time-course of this effect. The distractor could change from green to either the target or placeholder color. When the color change was early in time (30-40ms after its onset), dwell times were strongly affected by the change, whereas the effect on oculomotor capture was weak. Importantly, a change occurring as early as 60-80ms after distractor onset did neither affect capture nor dwell times, corroborating the assumption of parallel programming of saccades