Stroop interference is affected in inhibition of return

In previous research, we have shown that the processing of targets that are presented to locations subject to inhibition of return (IOR) is affected b y an inhibitory tagging mechanism. This mechanism acts by disconnecting act ivated representations of stimuli at inhibited locations from their associa ted responses. In two experiments, we assessed whether this inhibitory tagg ing mechanism of visual attention is also applied to task-irrelevant but pr epotent dimensions of target stimuli, such as words in the Stroop task. To test this hypothesis, we examined the Stroop effect in an IOR procedure. Th e results showed that (1) IOR can be found in a color discrimination task, (2) the Stroop interference was reduced (Experiment 1) or eliminated (Exper iment 2) when stimuli appeared at cued locations, as compared with cases in which they were presented at uncued locations, and (3) the effect of inhib itory tagging was limited to the shortest stimulus onset asynchrony value, replicating previous findings. These results agree with the idea that inhib itory tagging, occurring in IOR, affects the efficiency with which color wo rds compete for responses in Stroop-like situations.