Information in the visual environment is largely accessed
through a series of fixations punctuated by saccades. Changes
in fixation patterns in response to learning are well
documented in studies of categorization, but the properties of
the saccades that precede them and the role of visual salience
in effecting eye movements remains poorly understood. This
eye tracking study examines oculomotor changes in a
categorization task with salient distractors. The design
examines high-level, goal-directed attention that serves the
purpose of learning, and making decisions based on that
learned knowledge in the presence of salient distractors. We
find that salient distractors draw fixation durations and
saccade velocities that display similar properties to eye
movements directed to task relevant items, challenging
existing accounts that salience draws rapid saccades.