The role of spatial working memory in inhibition of return: Evidence from divided attention tasks

Inhibition of return (IOR) refers to a bias against returning attention to a location that has been recently attended. In the present experiments, we examined the role of working memory in IOR by introducing secondary tasks (in the temporal interval between the cue and the target) that involved a working memory component. When the secondary task was nonspatial in nature (monitoring odd digits or adding digits), IOR was present, although overall reaction times were greater in the presence of the secondary task. When the task involved a spatial working memory load (remembering the directionality of arrows or the orientation of objects), IOR was eliminated. However, when the participants had incentive to process the directionality of an arrow but did not have to use any memory system, IOR persisted at peripheral locations. Overall, the results suggest that IOR is partially mediated by a spatial working memory system.

[1]  J. Pratt,et al.  Inhibition of return to successively cued spatial locations. , 1995, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[2]  A. Henik,et al.  The Endogenous Modulation of IOR is Nasal-Temporal Asymmetric , 2000, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[3]  N. Cowan.  An embedded-processes model of working memory , 1999 .

[4]  H. Deubel,et al.  Saccade target selection and object recognition: Evidence for a common attentional mechanism , 1996, Vision Research.

[5]  R. Klein,et al.  Inhibition of return , 2000, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[6]  J. Wolfe,et al.  Guided Search 2.0 A revised model of visual search , 1994, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[7]  Z. Pylyshyn.  The role of location indexes in spatial perception: A sketch of the FINST spatial-index model , 1989, Cognition.

[8]  R. Klein,et al.  Inhibition of Return is a Foraging Facilitator in Visual Search , 1999 .

[9]  A. Miyake,et al.  Models of Working Memory: Mechanisms of Active Maintenance and Executive Control , 1999 .

[10]  R. Klein,et al.  On the manifestations of memory in visual search. , 2000, Spatial vision.

[11]  R. Klein,et al.  Visual and motor effects in inhibition of return. , 2000, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[12]  S. Tipper,et al.  Object-based and environment-based inhibition of return of visual attention. , 1994, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[13]  Gordon D. Logan,et al.  Attention in Character-Classification Tasks : Evidence for the Automaticity of Component Stages , 1978 .

[14]  Elizabeth A. Maylor,et al.  Components of orienting in visual space , 1983 .

[15]  David E. Irwin,et al.  Visual Search has Memory , 2001, Psychological science.

[16]  T. Carr,et al.  Inhibitory Processes in Attention, Memory and Language , 1994 .

[17]  P. Calabresi,et al.  Saccade preparation inhibits reorienting to recently attended locations. , 1989, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[18]  D. Bouwhuis,et al.  Attention and performance X : control of language processes , 1986 .

[19]  J M Wolfe,et al.  Search for multiple targets: Remember the targets, forget the search , 2001, Perception & psychophysics.

[20]  Yuji Takeda,et al.  Search for multiple targets: Evidence for memory-based control of attention , 2004, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[21]  Jonathan Vaughan,et al.  Saccades Directed at Previously Attended Locations in Space , 1984 .

[22]  S. Tipper,et al.  Short Report: Object-Centred Inhibition of Return of Visual Attention , 1991, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[23]  Richard D Wright,et al.  Location cue validity affects inhibition of return of visual processing , 2000, Vision Research.

[24]  Steven P. Tipper,et al.  Inhibition of return to successively cued spatial locations : Commentary on Pratt and Abrams (1995) , 1996 .

[25]  D P Munoz,et al.  Influence of previous visual stimulus or saccade on saccadic reaction times in monkey. , 1999, Journal of neurophysiology.

[26]  A. Baddeley,et al.  Working Memory: The multiple-component model , 1999 .

[27]  Hermann J. Miiller,et al.  Probing Distractor Inhibition in Visual Search: Inhibition of Return , 2000 .

[28]  M. Posner,et al.  Components of visual orienting , 1984 .

[29]  J. Stern.  Theoretical and applied aspects of eye movement research A. G. Gale and F. Johnson, (Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., Amsterdam, 1984) pp. xiii + 565, Dfl. 185 , 1985, Biological Psychology.

[30]  G. Logan.  Attention in character-classification tasks: Evidence for the automaticity of component stages. , 1978 .

[31]  S. Tipper,et al.  Inhibition of return to successively cued spatial locations: commentary on Pratt and Abrams (1995). , 1996, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[32]  Akihiro Yagi,et al.  Inhibitory Tagging on Randomly Moving Objects , 2002, Psychological science.

[33]  Todd S. Horowitz,et al.  Visual search has no memory , 1998, Nature.

[34]  M. Potter,et al.  Pictorial and conceptual representation of glimpsed pictures. , 2004, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[35]  N. Cowan.  Attention and Memory: An Integrated Framework , 1995 .

[36]  Raymond Klein,et al.  Inhibitory tagging system facilitates visual search , 1988, Nature.

[37]  Raymond M. Klein,et al.  On the causes and effects of inhibition of return , 1998 .

[38]  J. Pratt,et al.  Inhibition of return is composed of attentional and oculomotor processes , 1999, Perception & psychophysics.

[39]  J. Findlay,et al.  The Relationship between Eye Movements and Spatial Attention , 1986, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[40]  Min-Shik Kim,et al.  The role of spatial working memory in visual search efficiency , 2004, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[41]  M. Posner,et al.  Inhibition of return : Neural basis and function , 1985 .

[42]  G. Logan,et al.  On the Use of a Concurrent Memory Load to Measure Attention and Automaticity , 1979 .

[43]  R. Rafal,et al.  The neurology of inhibition: Integrating controlled and automatic processes. , 1994 .

[44]  A. Baddeley,et al.  The Psychology of Learning and Motivation , 1974 .

[45]  A. Yagi,et al.  Inhibitory tagging in visual search can be found if search stimuli remain visible , 2000, Perception & psychophysics.

[46]  Janice J. Snyder,et al.  Inhibition of return to successively stimulated locations in a sequential visual search paradigm. , 1998, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[47]  L. Chelazzi,et al.  Volitional Covert Orienting to a Peripheral Cue Does Not Suppress Cue-induced Inhibition of Return , 2000, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[48]  J. Pratt,et al.  Symbolic Control of Visual Attention , 2001, Psychological science.

[49]  R A Abrams,et al.  Spatially diffuse inhibition affects multiple locations: a reply to Tipper, Weaver, and Watson (1996). , 1996, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[50]  A. Kingstone,et al.  Inhibition of return and visual search: How many separate loci are inhibited? , 2000, Perception & psychophysics.

[51]  Iain D Gilchrist,et al.  Refixation frequency and memory mechanisms in visual search , 2000, Current Biology.

[52]  G. Woodman,et al.  Visual Search Remains Efficient when Visual Working Memory is Full , 2001, Psychological science.