Oculometric Indicators of Individual Differences in Preparatory Control During the Antisaccade Task

Individual differences in preparatory control in the antisaccade task were examined in two experiments via an examination of pupillary responses and fixation stability during the preparatory delay. In both experiments, high attention control individuals (high-antisaccade performers) demonstrated larger pupillary responses during the preparatory delay than low attention control individuals (low-antisaccade performers). These results suggest that variation in antisaccade performance were partially due to individual differences in the ability to ramp up and regulate the intensity of attention allocated to preparatory control processes. Additionally, fixation stability, working memory capacity, susceptibility to off-task thinking, and task-specific motivation were found to correlate with antisaccade performance. Furthermore, both preparatory control and off-task thinking accounted for much of the relation between working memory capacity and antisaccade. These results provide evidence that individual differences in antisaccade performance are multifaceted and that variation in preparatory control (along with other factors) are critically important.