The influence of saccade target status on the reference frame of object-location binding.

Abstract

In order to maintain stability across saccades, the visual system must keep track of nonspatial information bound to each location (object-location binding). Here, we investigated whether saccade target status affects the reference frame of trans-saccadic object-location binding. Previous studies examining the reference frame of object-location binding showed that peripheral, nonsaccade target objects are naturally bound to retinotopic, not spatiotopic, coordinates. But real-world saccades are generally directed toward objects of interest: Might trans-saccadic object-location binding occur in more ecologically relevant spatiotopic coordinates for saccade target objects? We adopted a modified spatial congruency bias paradigm, in which participants were asked to judge if two objects have the same or different identity. A saccade between object presentations was directed either toward the first object's location (saccade target condition) or to another location (saccade-elsewhere and saccade-away conditions). Across three preregistered experiments, we found primarily retinotopic object-location binding in the saccade-elsewhere and saccade-away conditions, but coexisting spatiotopic and retinotopic binding in the saccade target condition. The results indicate that saccade target objects can be additionally bound to spatiotopic coordinates across saccades and that it is the saccade target status specifically that allows an object to be additionally bound to spatiotopic coordinates. Overall, these findings highlight the importance of saccade target objects in maintaining stability across saccades, allowing for object-location binding to be encoded and/or remapped in stable spatiotopic coordinates. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).