Eye movements during visual search

What are the processes that guide eye-movements during search? What is the information available to the 1st saccade during search and how does it compare to that available to perception? Do the neural mechanisms driving saccades use similar visual information as those mediating perceptual decisions?Can we use natural images and simulate the process of evolution to give rise to some of the properties of the human brain mechanisms used for visual search?

How much does performance in the final perceptual decision benefit from the overt search with eye movements?  These are some of the questions we are currently investigating. 

Selected Publications:

Zhang S., Eckstein M.P., Evolution and Optimality of similar neural mechanisms for perception actions during search, PLoS Comput Biol., 9, 6, (2010)

Droll, JA, Abbey CK, Eckstein MP, Learning cue validity through performance feedback, Journal of Vision, 9(2):18, 1-22, (2009)


Droll JA, Eckstein MP, Gaze control and memory for objects while walking in a real world environment.Visual Cognition, Special Issue on Eye Guidance in Natural Scenes, 17(6),1159 -1184 (2009

Eckstein MP, Butter BR, Pham BT, Shimozaki SS, Stone LS. Similar neural representations of the target for saccades and perception during search. J Neuroscience, 27, 1266-70, (2007)
For a comment on above article see: A Single Route to Action? The Common Representation of Perceptual and Saccade Targets by Thérèse Collins J. Neurosci. 2007 27: 3935-3936

Ludwig, C.H.J., Eckstein M.P., Brent R. Beutter, B.R., Limited flexibility in the filter underlying saccadic targeting, Vision Research, 47, 280-8, (2007)

Eckstein, M.P., Drescher B., Shimozaki, S.S., Attentional cues in real scenes, saccadic targeting and Bayesian priors, Psychological Science, 17, 973-80 (2006)

Caspi, A, Beutter, B.R., Eckstein, M.P., The time course of visual information accrual guiding eye movement decisions, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciencies,101: 13086-13090 (2004)

Beutter, B.R., Eckstein, M.P., Stone, L.S.,Saccadic and perceptual performance in visual search tasks. I. Contrast detection and discrimination. J Opt Soc Am A Opt Image Sci Vis, 20, 1341-55 (2003)

Murray, R.., Beutter, B.R., Eckstein, M.P., Stone, L.S., Saccadic and perceptual performance in visual search tasks. II. Letter discrimination. J Opt Soc Am A Opt Image Sci Vis., 20,:1356-70 (2003)

Eckstein, M.P., Beutter, B.R., Stone, L.S., Quantifying the performance limits of human saccadic targeting in visual search, Perception , 30, 1389-1401, (2001)