There's little return for attentional momentum

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Visual Attention

Background:

• Inhibition of return (IOR) is a phenomenon where response times (RTs) are delayed for targets at previously cued locations.
• The prevailing theory attributes IOR to visual-motor inhibition.
• The attentional momentum account proposes IOR results from attention shifting away from the cued location, predicting opposite facilitation (OFE).

Purpose of the Study:

• To re-evaluate the attentional momentum account of IOR.
• To determine if the opposite facilitation effect (OFE) is a necessary component of IOR.
• To provide further evidence for or against the attentional momentum theory of IOR.

Main Methods:

• Reanalysis of existing studies investigating IOR and OFE.
• Presentation and analysis of new experimental data on IOR and OFE.
• Utilizing behavioral measures of response time (RT) to visual targets.

Main Results:

• IOR frequently occurs without any accompanying OFE.
• When OFE is present, IOR is not consistently observed.
• A double dissociation between IOR and OFE was demonstrated.

Conclusions:

• The attentional momentum account is invalidated as an explanation for IOR.
• The findings support an inhibitory explanation for the inhibition of return effect.
• IOR and OFE are distinct phenomena, not causally linked as proposed by attentional momentum theory.