The role of fixation position in detecting scene changes across saccades

Target objects presented within color images of naturalistic scenes were de leted or rotated during a saccade to or from the target object or to a cont rol region of the scene. Despite instructions to memorize the details of th e scenes and to monitor for object changes, viewers frequently failed to no tice the changes. However; the failure to detect change was mediated by thr ee other important factors.. First, accuracy generally increased as the dis tance between the changing region and the fixation immediately before ol af ter the change decreased. Second, changes were sometimes initially missed, brit subsequently noticed when the changed region was later refixated. Thir d, when an object disappear-ed from a scene, detection of that disappearanc e was greatly improved when the deletion occurred during the saccade toward that object. These results suggest that fixation position and saccade dire ction play an important role in determining whether changes will be detecte d. It appears that more information can be retained across views than has b een suggested by previous studies.