Eye-movement latency as a function of age, stimulus uncertainty, and position in the visual field.

Abstract

Records of eye-movement latencies were obtained from 8-yr.-olds and college undergraduates during a task requiring S to fixate a light appearing at different positions on a screen before him. All Ss were given 2 experimental conditions; in 1 (SLK) Ss were told the location of the stimulus appearing on the trial before the stimulus onset, while in the second (SLU) no information about stimulus location was given. Results indicated that younger Ss, in addition to having generally longer response latencies, were more influenced by the position of the target in the display and showed more variable performance across trial blocks than adults.