Saccade landing point does not affect transsaccadic integration
Summary
In transsaccadic integration visual information, obtained before and after an eye movement, is
combined. Since saccade landing point is very variable, transsaccadic integration needs to be
a robust system for it to work in facilitating visual perception. When two stimuli are present,
saccade landing point usually lands somewhere intermediate of the two; a phenomenon called
the global effect. However, attention does not seem to follow a similar path. Attention might
be goal dependent, thereby able to withstand visual noise. To investigate the robustness of
transsaccadic integration, a global effect paradigm was used; alongside a target a salient
distracter was displayed. Results indicate that the presence of a distracter does not influence
the sensitivity to visual information in transsaccadic integration trials. Saccade latency was
also investigated; the presence of a distracter elicited a faster eye movement, as compared to
eye movements in the absence of a distracter. In conclusion, transsaccadic integration seems
to be a robust mechanism that is not affected by saccade landing point. Saccade latency on the
other hand, is influenced by the prominence of a stimulus.