Abstract
Saccades produce errors in locating objects in space. The question here examined is whether they also produce errors of location in time. Observers judged whether flashed bars appeared before, during, or after saccades, the order of appearance of two bars flashed in sequence, and the apparent interval between two points of light flashed at a SOA of 100 ms.
We found that (1) bars displayed up to 150 ms before saccades were often judged as during saccades, later bars veridically; (2) the accuracy of judgements of order dropped just before saccades; (3) apparent intervals were shorter before saccades, reaching control levels at onset. We conclude that perceived time is foreshortened immediately before saccades. This could be due to selective suppression of magnocellular activity and may function to hide saccades and their effects.
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