Abstract
We tested whether color singletons lead to saccadic and manual inhibition of return (SIOR and IOR) and whether SIOR and IOR depended on the relevance of the color singletons. In altogether four experiments (Experiments 1 to 4), we observed SIOR after color singletons, and in two additional experiments we also found manual IOR for pointing movements (Experiment 5) but not for manual button presses (Experiment 6). Across experiments, SIOR and IOR increased with reaction time (RT) and tended to be stronger with long (Experiment 1) than short intervals (Experiment 2 to 5) between color singleton and saccade target. In addition, stronger SIOR after irrelevant than relevant singletons was only found when the interval between color singleton and saccade target was relatively short (Experiments 3 and 4). Together, the results shed light on some factors responsible for SIOR and help to understand some inconsistencies in the literature on top-down contingent capture of attention and its relation to SIOR and manual IOR.
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2013