Inhibition of return is supramodal: a demonstration between all possible pairings of vision, touch, and audition

'Inhibition of return' (IOR) refers to the delayed detection often found fo r targets at the same location as a preceding event. We examined whether IO R reflects a truly supramodal phenomenon, in an experiment designed to avoi d criticisms of previous crossmodal research. We presented a random sequenc e of visual, tactile, and auditory targets to either the left or right of c entral fixation, and tested for IOR between targets in all three modalities when presented successively to the same versus different side. Speeded det ection for targets in all three modalities was indeed slower if the precedi ng target had been presented from the same position, regardless of rite mod ality of this preceding target. These results demonstrate for the first tim e that IOR is truly supramodal.