TY - JOUR A1 - Starzynski, Christian A1 - Engbert, Ralf T1 - Noise-enhanced target discrimination under the influence of fixational eye movements and external noise N2 - Active motor processes are present in many sensory systems to enhance perception. In the human visual system, miniature eye movements are produced involuntarily and unconsciously when we fixate a stationary target. These fixational eye movements represent self-generated noise which serves important perceptual functions. Here we investigate fixational eye movements under the influence of external noise. In a two-choice discrimination task, the target stimulus performed a random walk with varying noise intensity. We observe noise-enhanced discrimination of the target stimulus characterized by a U-shaped curve of manual response times as a function of the diffusion constant of the stimulus. Based on the experiments, we develop a stochastic information-accumulator model for stimulus discrimination in a noisy environment. Our results provide a new explanation for the constructive role of fixational eye movements in visual perception. Y1 - 2009 UR - http://ojps.aip.org/chaos/ U6 - https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3098950 SN - 1054-1500 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lange, Elke B. A1 - Starzynski, Christian A1 - Engbert, Ralf T1 - Capture of the gaze does not capture the mind JF - Attention, perception, & psychophysics : AP&P ; a journal of the Psychonomic Society, Inc. N2 - Sudden visual changes attract our gaze, and related eye movement control requires attentional resources. Attention is a limited resource that is also involved in working memory-for instance, memory encoding. As a consequence, theory suggests that gaze capture could impair the buildup of memory respresentations due to an attentional resource bottleneck. Here we developed an experimental design combining a serial memory task (verbal or spatial) and concurrent gaze capture by a distractor (of high or low similarity to the relevant item). The results cannot be explained by a general resource bottleneck. Specifically, we observed that capture by the low-similar distractor resulted in delayed and reduced saccade rates to relevant items in both memory tasks. However, while spatial memory performance decreased, verbal memory remained unaffected. In contrast, the high-similar distractor led to capture and memory loss for both tasks. Our results lend support to the view that gaze capture leads to activation of irrelevant representations in working memory that compete for selection at recall. Activation of irrelevant spatial representations distracts spatial recall, whereas activation of irrelevant verbal features impairs verbal memory performance. KW - Attention KW - Memory KW - Cognitive eye movements KW - Visual working memory KW - Short-term memory Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-012-0318-8 SN - 1943-3921 VL - 74 IS - 6 SP - 1168 EP - 1182 PB - Springer CY - New York ER -