Inhibition of return along the path of attention

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to examine inhibition of return (IOR) at four potential target locations (a near and a far location in each visual hemifield). In the first experiment, the locations were aligned horizontally and IOR was found at the near locations when the cues were presented at the far locations but not at the far locations when the cues were presented at the near locations. In the second experiment, the locations were not horizontally aligned and IOR was not found for near locations when the far locations were cued. The results suggest that IOR may be an attentional phenomenon and that attention may operate in an analog fashion such that locations in the path of the attentional movement may be attended to.