On the "cyclopean eye": saccadic asymmetry and the reliability of perceived straight-ahead

Vision Research
J T Enright

Abstract

If two targets are both on the visual axis of one eye or the other, and binocular fixation is shifted from the farther one to the nearer, the aligned eye consistently makes an initial, seemingly pointless saccade in a temporal direction. The size of those saccades typically differs markedly, depending on whether the targets are aligned with the observer's dominant or non-dominant eye. Pickwell [(1972) Vision Research, 12, 1499-1507] proposed that this binocular asymmetry in oculomotor performance reflects a subject-specific lateral displacement of the egocenter (the "binoculus" of Hering, which has traditionally been assumed to be on the midline). An empirical test of Pickwell's widely endorsed hypothesis has now been conducted and the proposal has been found wanting. In an otherwise darkened room, subjects were required repeatedly to set a small light to a perceived straight-ahead location in the horizontal plane, first for a target at 300 cm distance and then for one at 30 cm. Extrapolation of a line that connects the two averages of those settings to the inter-ocular axis provides an estimate of the subjective egocenter to which visual directions are referred. Contrary to Pickwell's proposal, those locations of the inferred ...Continue Reading

References

Dec 1, 1992·Vision Research·J T Enright
Feb 1, 1970·Vision Research·A A Skavenski, R M Steinman
Jul 1, 1971·Vision Research·A A Skavenski
Aug 1, 1994·Vision Research·J T Enright, A Hendriks
Nov 1, 1956·American Journal of Ophthalmology·J E ALFANO, P A ALFANO
May 1, 1961·The Journal of Physiology·P A MERTON
Apr 1, 1951·A.M.A. Archives of Ophthalmology·G L WALLS

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Citations

Dec 17, 2015·Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association·Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela

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