Inhibitory tagging in visual search can be found if search stimuli remain visible

Klein (1988) reported that inhibitory tagging (i.e., inhibition of return i n visual search) made reaction times for the detection of small probes incr ease at locations where there had previously been rejected items in serial visual search. It is reasonable that the attended and rejected locations ar e inhibited. However, subsequent studies did not support Klein's idea. In t hese studies, inhibitory tagging was tested after removing the items from t he search tasks. The paradigms in these studies were not appropriate for te sting an object-based inhibitory effect because the objects (i.e., items) w ere removed from the display. In the present study, we found that evidence of inhibitory tagging could be observed only when the items of the search t asks were maintained until the responses for the small probes were made. Th is appeared to be an object-based effect.