Bs. Gibson et H. Egeth, INHIBITION AND DISINHIBITION OF RETURN - EVIDENCE FROM TEMPORAL-ORDERJUDGMENTS, Perception & psychophysics, 56(6), 1994, pp. 669-680
In the present study the temporal order judgment (TOJ) task was used t
o investigate whether or not inhibition of return (IOR) affects percep
tual processing. Previous failures to obtain IOR in the TOJ task have
been taken to suggest that IOR does not affect perceptual processing (
e.g., Maylor, 1985). The present study showed that IOR is modulated by
the temporal disparity between successive targets as well as the rela
tive order in which they appear at cued and uncued locations. Conseque
ntly, IOR affects TOJs in some conditions but not in others. The selec
tive occurrence of IOR in the TOJ task provides converging support for
the notion that IOR does affect perceptual processing, and also accou
nts for the previous failures to observe IOR in the TOJ task. Moreover
, these and other results suggest that inhibitory processing at the cu
ed location can be disinhibited when stimulation occurs at other locat
ions.