An examination of saccadic suppression using a multi-saccade paradigm

Most studies of saccadic suppression study changes in visual detection thresholds as a function of a single saccadic eye movement. The evidence generated by the single eye movement paradigm has demonstrated that saccadic eye movements are associated with a stimulus specific decrease in visual sensitivity that is time-locked to the course of the saccade. Our research replicates this experimental design using an array of LED displays, and reveals that the ability to identify alphabetical characters during a single saccade is greatly decreased. When multiple targets are presented, however, and when subjects' eye movements are unrestrained, we found no evidence that the capacity to identify alphabetical targets is reduced. Further, we observed that in some experimental conditions, the number of errors was lower in trials where more frequent and larger saccades were observed. These results indicate that in the context of the displays used in these experiments, the perceptual cost of saccadic suppression may be offset by the perceptual benefits provided by saccades. The results are discussed in the context of existing models of attention and visual searc