The role of stimulus-driven and goal-driven control in saccadic visual selection

Mieke Donk, Jan Theeuwes, Louise Van Zoest*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

227 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Four experiments were conducted to investigate the role of stimulus-driven and goal-driven control in saccadic eye movements. Participants were required to make a speeded saccade toward a predefined target presented concurrently with multiple nontargets and possibly 1 distractor. Target and distractor were either equally salient (Experiments 1 and 2) or not (Experiments 3 and 4). The results uniformly demonstrated that fast eye movements were completely stimulus driven, whereas slower eye movements were goal driven. These results are in line with neither a bottom-up account nor a top-down notion of visual selection. Instead, they indicate that visual selection is the outcome of 2 independent processes, one stimulus driven and the other goal driven, operating in different time windows.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)746-759
Number of pages14
JournalJournal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance
Volume30
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Aug 2004

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
  • Behavioral Neuroscience

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