This issue contains the abstracts submitted for presentation at the Thirteenth European Conference on Eye Movements (ECEM13), Bern, August 14 – 18, 2005, and reviewed by the Scientific Board, consisting of W. Becker, Ulm; C.J. Erkelens, Utrecht; J.M. Findlay, Durham; A.G. Gale, Derby; C.W. Hess, Bern; J. Hyönä, Turku; A. Kennedy, Dundee; K. Koga, Nagoya; G. Lüer, Göttingen; M. Menozzi, Zürich; W. Perrig, Bern; G. d’Ydewalle, Leuven; D. Zambarbieri, Pavia.
A quarter of a century ago, in 1980 initiated by Rudolf Groner and Dieter Heller, a transdisciplinary network called European Group of Scientists active in Eye Movement Research was founded. This group included scientists who used eye movement registration as a research tool and developed models based on oculomotor data obtained from a wide spectrum of phenomena, ranging from the neurophysiological to the perceptual and the cognitive level. The group was intended to serve the purpose of (1) exchanging information about current research, equipment and software, (2) organizing a conference (ECEM) at a different location all over Europe every other year.
Over the years ECEM has grown.
At the first conference in Bern the relatively small number of participants made it possible for the organisers to avoid conflicting parallel sessions, whereas with the ECEM’s steady growth, the introduction of parallel sessions soon became necessary. Although we are very happy about this year’s new record of 273 scientific contributions, we regret at the same time that this large number of participants necessitated the introduction of no less than four parallel sessions for oral presentations.
Part of the ECEM culture are the books with a selection of edited contributions which have traditionally always been published after the conferences. Unfortunately, over the years the sale prices of books have become prohibitively expensive and book chapters have increasingly been given a low rating in comparison to publications in peer reviewed journals. As a consequence of this trend, we are now considering to launch an online journal Eye Movement Research which would publish scientific papers either on the base of individual submissions by the authors or as a follow-up of workshops or thematic sessions at ECEM. In either case, a fair peer reviewing process should guarantee a high quality of the contributions.
Acknowledgements
Last but not least, we are happy to express our deep gratitude to the main sponsors of our conference and to all the people who helped to keep it going. The Max and Elsa Beer-Brawand Foundation generously funded the invited speakers. The Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences (SAGW) sponsored the organization of workshops and made it possible for us to reduce fees for students. Novartis Neuroscience sponsored the reception at the Zentrum Paul Klee Bern. The University of Bern hosted the conference in its magnificent historical building.
A team of devoted young scientists acted as staff during the conference: Eva Siegenthaler, Liliane Braun, Miriam Lörtscher, Esther Schollerer, Daniel Stricker, Simon Raess, Philipp Sury, Bartholomäus Wissmath, Linda Bodmer, Martina Brunnthaler, Daniela Häberli, Nadine Messerli, Felicie Notter, Didier Plaschy, Svetlana Ognjanovi, David Weibel, Yves Steiner and Dominik Moser.
We dedicate this book to the memory of two important men in eye movement research: Dieter Heller as one of the founders of the ECEM group, and Lawrence W. Stark as pioneer in cognitive modelling of oculomotor control. In an early planning stage of ECEM13 both had been invited as keynote speakers, but their untimely death made this plan impossible. In many sessions of ECEM13 the influence of their work will prevail.
Abstracts of the 14th European Conference on Eye Movements 2007