Transsaccadic feature memory performance asymmetries in visual field and saccade direction

Previous work examining transsaccadic memory for spatial information has shown better memory for stimuli in the right visual field compared to the left visual field, for leftward compared to rightward saccades, and information that was remapped within the same visual field rather than between visual fields (Moussaoui et al., 2023). These findings may be explained by asymmetrical activation, showing left hemisphere activation for right visual field and right hemisphere activation for both visual fields (Sheremata et al., 2010). Because feature information is consulted for transsaccadic updating of spatial information and the establishment of visual stability (Tas & Parker, 2023), the current study examines whether feature and spatial information are similarly represented in transsaccadic memory. In the present study, participants fixated on a dot in the center of the screen surrounded by two squares in the right visual field and two in the left visual field. Three squares were then filled with different colors and then masked. Next, participants executed either a leftward or a rightward saccade which manipulated whether color memory information remained in the same visual field or switched visual fields. At the end of each trial, participants reported the color of a cued memory location on a color wheel. Expanding previous work, we found better color memory when the color was presented in the right visual field compared to the left visual field and for leftward saccades compared to rightward saccades. Contradicting previous work, color memory was better for items that are remapped between rather than within the same visual field, likely due to differences in eccentricities. These findings suggest feature information, like spatial information, shows stronger representation in the right visual field and for leftward saccades, indicating similar representation in transsaccadic memory.