Inhibition of Return for Endogenous Colour Cues

Abstract

Inhibition of Return (IOR) is a phenomenon of attention where responses are slower toward a recently attended location, compared with novel locations. Recently, coloured signals have been used endogenously (MacInnes, Kruger & Hunt, 2015) although their ability to produce IOR in a similar manner to arrow signals has not been investigated. The aim of the present study was to compare colour and arrow signals in their ability to generate IOR given that both can provide endogenous information. Experiment 1 contained two conditions: arrow signals, and colour signals. The results showed robust IOR for the arrow condition, which was also true for the colour condition on trials where the target colours did not change location. No IOR was found for trials in which the coloured targets changed location. In experiment 2, the arrow condition was repeated, along with a new condition in which arrows were used to signal targets but the targets had (irrelevant) colours that changed location on 50% of the trials on a random basis. The results showed robust IOR for both arrow conditions despite the fact that the peripheral targets switched positions. In conclusion, the IOR generated by endogenous colour signals did not seem to be of the same nature as that produced by arrow signals although further research is required to determine if this is a property of the use of coloured signals per se or instead the use of central signals that require analysis of features in the peripheral field to provide meaning.