A STATIC IMAGE OF A RAPIDLY MOVING PATTERN CAN BE PERCEIVED BY MAKINGA SACCADE

Ten undergraduate and two graduate students were required to identify the moving patterns. The two patterns were made of triangles; one with apices pointing up and the other with apices pointing down. A given p attern was moved rapidly on a CRT and the subject was asked to watch a nd say whether the triangles pointed up or down. When they fixated a s ingle point, the correct responses were near chance. When they made a saccade across the moving pattern, their detection performance was sig nificantly better. The subjects reported that they could perceive the static image of the pattern when the saccade was made. This result mig ht be explained by the hypothesis that saccadic suppression reduces ex cessive visual input.