THE FUNCTION OF VISUAL-SEARCH AND MEMORY IN SEQUENTIAL LOOKING TASKS

Eye and head movements were recorded as unrestrained subjects tapped o r only looked at nearby targets. Scanning patterns were the same in bo th tasks: subjects looked at each target before tapping it; visual sea rch had similar speeds and gaze-shift accuracies, Looking, however, to ok longer and, unlike tapping, benefitted little from practice. Lookin g speeded up more than tapping when memory load was reduced: memory wa s more efficient during tapping. Conclusion: eye movements made when o nly looking are different from those made when tapping, Visual search functions as a separate process, incorporated into both tasks: it can be used to improve performance when memory load is heavy.