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The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the effects of visual salience on early oculomotor selection can be modulated by prior knowledge regarding the identities and locations of potential saccadic targets. In two experiments, participants were asked to make a saccade to a singleton target line (eg left tilted) that was presented with a singleton distractor line (tilted in the opposite direction) in a homogenous field of background lines. The salience of the target was either high or low relative to the salience of the distractor. The Stimulus Onset Asynchrony (SOA) between the singletons and the background elements was manipulated in order to dissociate the availability of information concerning the identities of the singletons, the locations of the singletons, and the salience of the singletons. The singletons were either presented simultaneously with the background lines (Experiment 1 and 2), prior to the …