Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Sensory biases produce alternation advantage found in sequential saccadic eye movement tasks

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Experimental Brain Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In two-choice reaction time tasks, participants respond faster when the correct decision switches across consecutive trials. This alternation advantage has been interpreted as the guessing strategies of participants. Because the participants expect that the correct decision will switch across consecutive trials, they respond faster when this expectation is confirmed and they respond more slowly when it is disconfirmed. In this study, we evaluated the veracity of this expectancy interpretation. After replicating a long-lasting alternation advantage in saccadic reaction times (Experiment 1), we show that reducing the participants’ ability to guess with a challenging mental rotation task does not change the alternation advantage, which suggests that expectancy is not responsible for the effect (Experiment 2). Next, we used prosaccade and antisaccade responses to dissociate between the sensory and motor contributions of the alternation advantage (Experiment 3) and we found that the alternation advantage originates from sensory processing. The implications of these findings are discussed with regard to guessing strategies, sensory processing, and how these findings may relate to inhibition of return.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1 A
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abrams RA, Dobkin RS (1994) Inhibition of return: effects of attentional cuing on eye movement latencies. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 20:467–477

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bell AH, Fecteau JH, Munoz DP (2004) Using auditory and visual stimuli to investigate the behavioral and neuronal consequences of reflexive covert orienting. J Neurophysiol 91:2172–2184

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bertelson P (1961) Sequential redundancy and speed in a serial two-choice responding task. Q J Exp Psychol 13:90–120

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruyer R, Scailquin JC (1998) The visual sketchpad for mental images: testing the multicomponent model of working memory. Acta Psychol (Amst) 98:17–36

    Google Scholar 

  • Carpenter RH (2001) Express saccades: is bimodality a result of the order of stimulus presentation? Vision Res 41:1145–1151

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Danziger S, Kingstone A, Snyder JJ (1998) IOR to successively stimulated locations in a sequential visual search paradigm. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 24:1467–1475

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dorris MC, Munoz DP (1995) A neural correlate for the gap effect on saccadic reaction times in monkeys. J Neurophysiol 73:2558–2562

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dorris MC, Munoz DP (1998) Saccadic probability influences motor preparation signals and time to saccadic initiation. J Neurosci 18:7015–7026

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dorris MC, Taylor TL, Klein RM, Munoz DP (1999) Influence of previous visual stimulus or saccade on saccadic reaction times in monkey. J Neurophysiol 81:2429–2436

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dorris MC, Klein RM, Everling S, Munoz DP (2002) Contribution of primate superior colliculus to IOR. J Cogn Neurosci 14:1256–1263

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fecteau JH, Munoz DP (2003) Exploring the consequences of the previous trial. Nat Rev Neurosci 4:435–443

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fectau JH, Bell AH, Munoz DP (2004) Neural correlates of the automatic and goal-driven biases in orienting spatial attention. J Neurophysiol (in press)

  • Fischer B, Weber H (1993) Express saccades and visual attention. Behav Brain Sci 16:533–610

    Google Scholar 

  • Fischer MH, Pratt J, Neggers SF (2003) Inhibition of return and manual pointing movements. Percept Psychophys 65:379–387

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hallet PE (1978) Primary and secondary saccades to goals defined by instructions. Vision Res 18:1279–1296

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hays AV, Richmond BJ, Optician LM (1982) A UNIX-based multiple process system for real-time data acquisition and control. WESCON Conf Proc 2:1–10

    Google Scholar 

  • Ingle D (1973) Disinhibition of tectal neurons by pretectal lesions in the frog. Science 180:422–424

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jarvik (1946) Probability discrimination and the gambler’s fallacy in guessing. Am Psychol 1:453–454

    Google Scholar 

  • Kingstone A, Klein RM (1993) Visual offsets facilitate saccadic latency: does predisengagement of visuospatial attention mediate this gap effect? J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 19:1251–1265

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kirby NH (1976) Sequential effects in two-choice reaction time: automatic facilitation or subjective expectancy? J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 2:567–577

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Klein RM (2000) IOR. Trends Cogn Sci 4:138–147

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lupianez J, Milan EG, Tornay FJ, Madrid E, Tudela P (1997) Does IOR occur in discrimination tasks? Yes, it does, but later. Percept Psychophys 59:1241–1254

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Maylor EA (1985) Facilitatory and inhibitory components of orienting in visual space. In: Posner MI, Marin OSM (eds) Mechanisms of attention: attention and performance, vol XI. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, pp 189–204

  • Maylor EA, Hockey GRJ (1985) Inhibitory component of externally controlled covert orienting in visual space. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 11:777–787

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Posner MI, Cohen Y (1984) Components of visual orienting. In: Bouma H, Bouwhuis D (eds) Attention and performance, vol X. Control of language processes. Erlbaum, London, pp 531–566

  • Posner MI, Rafal RD, Choate LS, Vaughan J (1985) Inhibition of return: neural basis and function. Cogn Neuropsychol 2:211–228

    Google Scholar 

  • Rafal RD, Calabresi PA, Brennan CW, Sciolto TK (1989) Saccade preparation inhibits reorienting to recently attended locations. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 15:673–685

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rafal R, Egly R, Rhodes D (1994) Effects of IOR on voluntary and visually guided saccades. Can J Exp Psychol 48:284–300

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Remington RJ (1969) Analysis of sequential effects in choice reaction times. J Exp Psychol 82:250–257

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sapir A, Soroker N, Berger A, Henik A (1999) Inhibition of return in spatial attention: direct evidence for collicular generation. Nat Neurosci. 2:1053–1054

    Google Scholar 

  • Saslow MG (1967) Effects of components of displacement-step stimuli upon latency for saccadic eye movement. J Opt Soc Am 57:1024–1029

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Soetens E (1998) Localizing sequential effects in serial choice reaction time with the information reduction procedure? J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 24:547–568

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Soetens E, Boer LC, Hueting JE (1985) Expectancy or automatic facilitation? Separating sequential effects in two-choice reaction time. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 11:598–616

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor TL, Donnelly MP (2002) Inhibition of return for target discriminations: the effect of repeating discriminated and irrelevant stimulus dimensions. Percept Psychophys 64:292–317

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor TL, Klein RM (1998) On the causes and effects of IOR. Psychonom Bull Rev 5:625–643

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor TL, Klein RM (2000) Visual and motor effects in IOR. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 26:1639–1656

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Townsend, JT, Ashby FG (1983) The stochastic modeling of elementary psychological processing systems. Erlbaum, Hillsdale

  • Wright RD, Richard CM (2000) Location cue validity affects inhibition of return of visual processing. Vision Res 40:2351–2358

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wright RD, Ward L (1998) The control of visual attention. In: Wright RD (ed) Visual attention. Oxford University Press, London, pp 132–186

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by operating and equipment grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research awarded to D.P. Munoz. Jillian Fecteau was funded with an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship. We would like to thank A. Bell, J. Gore, and R. Marino for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article and K. Moore and D. Hamburger for their technical support.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Crystal Au

    Present address: Department of Medical Sciences, University of Toronto, Canada

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Neuroscience Studies, CIHR Group in Sensory-Motor Systems, Department of Physiology, 4th Floor, Botterell Hall, Queen’s University, Kinsgston, Ontario, K7L 3N6, Canada

    Jillian H. Fecteau, Crystal Au, Irene T. Armstrong & Douglas P. Munoz

Authors
  1. Jillian H. Fecteau
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Crystal Au
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Irene T. Armstrong
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Douglas P. Munoz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Douglas P. Munoz.

Additional information

Jillian H. Fecteau and Crystal Au contributed equally to this work

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Fecteau, J.H., Au, C., Armstrong, I.T. et al. Sensory biases produce alternation advantage found in sequential saccadic eye movement tasks. Exp Brain Res 159, 84–91 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-004-1935-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-004-1935-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation