Visual working memory supports perceptual stability across saccadic eye movements. 2018

Deborah A Cronin, and David E Irwin
Department of Psychology.

Vision is suppressed during saccadic eye movements. To create a stable perception of the visual world we must compensate for the gaps in visual input caused by this suppression. Some theories of perceptual stability, such as the Saccade Target Object Theory (McConkie & Currie, 1996), propose that stability relies on object correspondence across saccades. According to these views, the visual system encodes features of the saccade target into visual working memory (VWM) before a saccade is made. After the saccade, participants attempt to locate those features within a small region near the fovea. If this locating process succeeds, perceptual stability is maintained. The present study investigated directly whether perceptual stability relies on VWM. If it does, perceived stability should be impaired when VWM is loaded with other visual information. Participants detected saccade target displacements while simultaneously maintaining a VWM or verbal working memory (AWM) load. In three experiments, a VWM load negatively impacted participants' ability to detect saccade target displacements and the saccade target displacement task negatively impacted memory for VWM task items. Neither of these effects were apparent when AWM was loaded, suggesting that performance on VWM and saccade target displacement detection tasks, and thus perceptual stability, relies on VWM resources. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D008570 Memory, Short-Term Remembrance of information for a few seconds to hours. Immediate Recall,Memory, Immediate,Working Memory,Memory, Shortterm,Immediate Memories,Immediate Memory,Immediate Recalls,Memories, Immediate,Memories, Short-Term,Memories, Shortterm,Memory, Short Term,Recall, Immediate,Recalls, Immediate,Short-Term Memories,Short-Term Memory,Shortterm Memories,Shortterm Memory,Working Memories
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000328 Adult A person having attained full growth or maturity. Adults are of 19 through 44 years of age. For a person between 19 and 24 years of age, YOUNG ADULT is available. Adults
D012438 Saccades An abrupt voluntary shift in ocular fixation from one point to another, as occurs in reading. Pursuit, Saccadic,Saccadic Eye Movements,Eye Movement, Saccadic,Eye Movements, Saccadic,Movement, Saccadic Eye,Movements, Saccadic Eye,Pursuits, Saccadic,Saccade,Saccadic Eye Movement,Saccadic Pursuit,Saccadic Pursuits
D014796 Visual Perception The selecting and organizing of visual stimuli based on the individual's past experience. Visual Processing,Perception, Visual,Processing, Visual
D053483 Eye Movement Measurements Methods and procedures for recording EYE MOVEMENTS. Eye Movement Measurement,Measurement, Eye Movement,Measurements, Eye Movement
D055815 Young Adult A person between 19 and 24 years of age. Adult, Young,Adults, Young,Young Adults

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