Inhibition Of Return (IOR)
Measure how attention suppresses returning to previously attended locations.
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What is the Inhibition Of Return (IOR)?
Inhibition Of Return (IOR) is a phenomenon first described by Michael Posner and Yoav Cohen in 1984. People are slower in detecting relevant stimuli at positions that have been attended shortly before to view an uninformative cue (time between uninformative cue and target has to be at least 300 ms). The effect is relatively small in absolute terms. The response time difference between detecting relevant stimuli at previously cued locations and at uncued locations is around 20 ms. The effect size depends strongly on the interval between cue and stimulus. At shorter times between cue and target, people respond faster to locations that were previously cued.
About this experiment
In this example, you need to respond to the green "GO" stimulus as quickly as possible. In each trial, a yellow circle labeled "ATTEND" first appears briefly in one of the two boxes; its location is randomly chosen, so it serves as an uninformative cue. The time between the "cue" and the "target" stimulus here is 1 second. At the end, you will see how fast you responded in cued and uncued locations.
The demo takes less than 5 minutes to complete (100 trials).
Further Reading
- Abrams, R. A., & Dobkin, R. S. (1994). The gap effect and inhibition of return: Interactive effects on eye movement latencies. Experimental Brain Research, 98, 483-487.
- Abrams, R. A., & Dobkin, R. S. (1994). Inhibition of return: Effects of attentional cuing on eye movement latencies. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 20, 467-477.
- Pratt, J., & Abrams, R. A. (1999). Inhibition of return in discrimination tasks. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 25, 229-242.
Learn more about Inhibition of Return
Explore the Posner cueing paradigm
Learn about Michael Posner's research
References
- Posner, M. I., & Cohen, Y. (1984). Components of visual orienting. In H. Bouma & D. G. Bouwhuis (Eds.), Attention and performance X (pp. 531-556). Lawrence Erlbaum.
- Klein, R. M. (2000). Inhibition of return. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4(4), 138-147. 10.1016/S1364-6613(00)01452-2
- Samuel, A. G., & Kat, D. (2003). Inhibition of return: A graphical meta-analysis of its time course and an empirical test of its temporal and spatial properties. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 10(4), 897-906. 10.3758/BF03196550
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Frequently Asked Questions
Have another question? Let us know.
What is inhibition of return?
After attention is drawn to a location and then withdrawn, responding to something new at that same location is briefly slower — the effect Posner and Cohen described in 1984.
Why would the brain slow down at cued locations?
It discourages re-checking recently searched spots, making visual search more efficient — a built-in foraging strategy for the eyes.
When does the effect appear?
Typically after roughly 300 ms from cue onset; at shorter intervals the same location is facilitated rather than inhibited.
What do my results show?
The difference between cued and uncued trials at longer cue-target intervals indexes inhibition of return in this session; expect tens of milliseconds.
About This Experiment
This experiment is an educational adaptation for demonstration purposes. It is not a clinical diagnostic tool. Results reflect your performance in this specific session and should not be interpreted as an assessment of your cognitive abilities.
Data Privacy
Your experiment data is processed and stored locally in your browser. No data is uploaded to any server unless you explicitly export it.
