Open AccessSpatial Attention and Saccade Preparation Both Independently Contribute to the Discrimination of Oblique Orientations
Author(s) -
Samantha Parker,
Andrew Heathcote,
Matthias Finkbeiner
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
advances in cognitive psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.507
H-Index - 31
ISSN - 1895-1171
DOI - 10.5709/acp-0307-8
Subject(s) - oblique case , saccade , artificial intelligence , computer vision , psychology , computer science , cognitive psychology , eye movement , linguistics , philosophy
The extent to which the preparation of an eye movement and spatial attention both independently influence performance within the same task has long been debated. In a recent study that combined computational modelling with a dual-task, both saccade preparation and spatial cueing were revealed to separately contribute to the discrimination of targets oriented along the cardinal axis (horizontal and vertical). However, it remains to be seen whether and to what degree the same holds true when different perceptual stimuli are used. In the present study, we combined evidence accumulation modelling with a dual-task paradigm to assess the extent to which both saccade preparation and spatial attention contribute to the discrimination of full contrast targets oriented along the oblique axis (diagonal). The results revealed a separate and quantifiable contribution of both types of orienting to discrimination performance. Comparison of the magnitude of these effects to those obtained for cardinal orientation discrimination revealed the influence of saccade preparation and spatial attention to be six times smaller for oblique orientations. Importantly, the results revealed a separate and quantifiable contribution of both saccade preparation and spatial attention regardless of perceptual stimuli or stimulus contrast.