The appearance of shape in visual perception:Eye movement patterns during recognition and reaching

One fundamental aspect of understanding appearance is the visual perception of shape, and how this is modulated by task demands. Here we examined how eye movement patterns relate to the perception of shape during tasks of object recognition and the planning of prehensile movement. Participants carried out either a recognition task (where they learned a set of novel objects and were then tested on recognition), or were asked to plan a reaching movement. The results show that eye movement patterns were linked to the perception of shape, and that these patterns varied between tasks: not only in terms of saccade parameters but also scan patterns.