Aging and the strategic control of the fixation offset effect.
A study was conducted to examine potential age-related differences in the strategic control of exogenous and endogenous saccades within the context of the fixation offset effect (FOE; i.e., faster saccades when a fixation point is removed than when it is left on throughout a trial). Subjects were instructed to make rapid saccades either on the basis of a suddenly appearing peripheral visual stimulus (exogenous saccade) or in response to a tone (endogenous saccade). On half of the trials the fixation point was removed simultaneously with the occurrence of the cue stimulus. Subjects' preparatory set was varied by manipulating the proportion of saccades generated to a visual and auditory stimulus within a trial block. Young and old adults both produced FOEs, and the FOEs were strategically modulated by preparatory set. The data are discussed in terms of aging and oculomotor control.
Cassavaugh
Nicholas
N
Beckman Institute and Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA.
Kramer
Arthur F
AF
Peterson
Matthew S
MS
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012438:Saccades / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D014796:Visual Perception