Influence of initial fixation position 9 Figure 1 . Examples from the set of images, (a) balanced (b) natural pattern (c) left focus (d) right focus. it disappeared. This was done to assure that participants started their exploration from the experimentally controlled position. If this fixation test failed, a mask with random noise appeared and the fixation check was repeated. After successful completion of the fixation test participants explored each scene for a subsequent memory test. In the mem- ory test participants had to indicate for 64 Images—32 already presented images and 32 new images—if they had seen it before. 2 Figure 3 summarises the experimental proce- dure. In the example, the first fixation check failed, before the actual scene exploration started. Because a fixation check of 1 second was very difficult for participants it had $^{2}$Participants answered correctly in 91.5% of the trials with a mean reaction time of 1.4 seconds. (a) (b) (c) (d)