Temporal modulation of stimulus luminance affects eye movements during a visual search task

MAMANI, EDGARDO FABIAN; JAEN, MIRTA E.; COLOMBO, ELISA M.

Toulousse

Conferencia; XXXIV Annual Meeting European Conference on Visual Perception (ECVP 2011).; 2011

ECVP (los grupos de Percepcion visual europeos y la univ. donde se realiza

A visual search task [Jaén et al., 2005, Leukos 1(4), 27-46] that analyzed the influence of lighting temporal modulation in visual performance is adjusted in order to analyze the effect of the monitor refresh frequency on eye movements (saccades and fixations) during a visual search task.  The study was carried out with a PC display (28 grad x 23 grad) with different refresh frequencies between 60 and 100 Hz. Three normal vision subjects’ carried out the task joining the first 30 natural numbers (randomly distributed on the display) in consecutive order with the mouse. Display also includes other digits like distractors which number varies from 30 to 0. Task time and eye movements were been registered with an eye tracker and analysed. Results show that task time, medium and small size saccades number and all fixations significantly diminish with the increase of refresh frequency. These results confirm previous ones in the sense that the task performance is hindered when the stimulus temporal frequency diminishes although it is next to the fusion critical frequency.