Inhibition of return mediates the relationship between openness to experience and visuospatial ability

Area of Science:

• Cognitive psychology
• Personality psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Openness to experience, a Big Five personality trait, is linked to cognitive functioning, but mechanisms are unclear.
• Visuospatial ability (VA) is associated with Openness, involving perception, memory, and problem-solving.
• Inhibition of return (IOR) is an attentional mechanism that may mediate this relationship by optimizing visual attention allocation.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate if IOR mediates the link between Openness and VA.
• Provide insights into personality-related differences in attentional processing.

Main Methods:

• 290 healthy adults completed personality (NEO-FFI), cognitive (RBANS), and IOR assessments.
• IOR strength (△ LRT_s) was quantified using an exogenous cueing paradigm.
• Mediation models were analyzed using SPSS, controlling for covariates.

Main Results:

• High Openness individuals showed significantly higher VA and stronger IOR effects.
• Positive correlations were found between Openness, IOR strength (△ LRT_s), and VA.
• Mediation analysis confirmed IOR partially mediates the Openness-VA relationship.

Conclusions:

• IOR acts as a mediating mechanism linking Openness to enhanced visuospatial performance.
• Findings highlight the interaction between personality and low-level cognitive processes.
• IOR may be a neurocognitive pathway for Openness facilitating attentional allocation.