The Effect of Distractor Presentation Frequency on Saccade Reaction Times and Curvature

Saccade Reaction Times • The appearance of an irrelevant stimulus 160 ms or more before the onset of a target has been shown to produce a decrease in saccade reaction times (Walker, Kentridge, & Findlay, 1995). • Hermens & Walker (2010) found presenting a peripheral distractor 300 ms prior to the target on 75% of the trials produced faster saccade reaction times compared to no distractor trials. • Irrelevant distractors may act as a temporal warning cue as a result of sufficient processing time (Hermens & Walker, 2010; Walker, et al., 1995), but frequency might also be a factor.