Spatial relevance determines facilitatory and inhibitory effects of auditory covert spatial orienting

Eight experiments examined the conditions necessary for covert orienting an d inhibition of return (IOR) to occur in audition. Spatially uninformative auditory cues facilitated responses to auditory targets at short stimulus o nset asynchronies (SOAs) and inhibited them at longer SOAs when the decisio n to respond was based on the location of the target (Experiments 1, 3, and 4). The same cues did not influence performance when the decision to respo nd was based on nonspatial criteria (Experiments 2, 5, and 7) unless the cu es predicted the location of the target (Experiment 6). In the absence of c ues, the location of a previous target influenced performance when the deci sion to respond was based on spatial, but not nonspatial, criteria (Experim ent 8). These findings demonstrate that covert orienting and IOR occur in a udition only when spatial relevance is established, presumably inducing use of location-sensitive neurons in generating responses.