Do individual differences in inhibition of return and single target discrimination ability affect visual search efficiency?
Abstract: We investigated whether amount of inhibition of return (IOR: a tendency for slower responses to targets presented at previously attended locations) and discrimination ability can predict individual differences in visual search efficiency. There is suggestion that IOR can act as a foraging facilitator in visual search by working as a type of implicit memory system that discourages re-inspection of items. Also, it was suspected that search efficiency should vary with individual discrimination ability, as search difficulty can vary with the similarity between targets and distractors. Three tasks were used: a single-item discrimination task (target/non-target discrimination), a visuo-spatial attention task (to measure IOR), and a visual search and probe task (to measure search efficiency and IOR to a probe presented following search). Amount of IOR following search and discrimination ability were each found to be significantly correlated with search efficiency: increasing amount
