BEHAVIORAL GOALS DETERMINE INHIBITORY MECHANISMS OF SELECTIVE ATTENTION

It has been argued that during selection of target objects, irrelevant distractor objects are inhibited (e.g. Tipper, 1985). This article ex amines whether distractor inhibition is an invariant process that occu rs in the same way for each act of selection, or whether it is a flexi ble process that adjusts to particular behavioural goals. We review pr evious studies and report new experiments that demonstrate that inhibi tion is a flexible process. Those internal representations of the dist ractor that are most associated with the action to be directed toward the target are inhibited. Other properties of the ignored object can r emain in an active state and can facilitate subsequent behaviour.