The Role of Inhibition of Retrirn in Visrtol Search Fulfillment O T' The
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University of Alberta The role of inhibition of retrirn in visrtol search by Janice Jacqueline Snyder 0 A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial Fulfillment O t' the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Psychology Edmonton, Alberta Fa11 2000 National Library Bibliothèque nationale 141 du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services senrices bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, rue welrigtori OttawaON K1AON4 CXbwaON KlAW Canada canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Lamy of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distn'bute or sell reproduire, prêter, distn'buer ou copies of this thesis in microforrn, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/^ de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial exûacts fkom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Abstract My dissertation research is aimed at understanding the attentional mechanisrns that mediate visual search. More specifically. my research focuses on a phenornenon called inhibition of return (IOR) where people are slower to respond to a stimulus if it is presented in a location that was previously attended. This del. in response timc (Rn is thought to reflect a bias to attend novel locations which, in tum, should serve to improve visual search efficiency. However, the question of whether IOR really plays an important role in visual search has been debated in the literature. My research addresses this question from several angles. One line of research examines whether the bias to attend novel locations retlects tàcilitation at unattended locations. inhibition at attended locations or both. A second line of research employs a novel paradigm to investigate the role attention has in multiple [OR and the causes of the apparent decline in IOR over multiple locations. A third Iine of research couples the novel paradigm for investigating multiple location IOR with more traditional visual search pmdigms. And a fourth line of research examines whether multiple IOR is location-based. object-based or both. The fint section of this thesis presents the paradigms used to study attention. and IOR. in particular. The second section reviews the evidence supporting a functional role of IOR in visual search. The third section presents my own studies that demonstrate that attention is important for establishing multiple LOR, that both the addition of cued locations and decay processes are responsible for the decline in IOR across cued back locations, that IOR is of greater benefit when visual search is dificult. and that multiple location IOR is coded in spatial coordinates. Acknowledgment Sincere thanks to my supervisors, Walter Bischof and Alan Kingstone, for taking the time to teach me the many things that I needed to lem. Thanks to rny family, Ray, Lindsay, and Jen; my friends. Linda Allen and Meta McDonald: and the Glee Club. Corinne Zimmeman. Jacqueline Leighton. and Leanne Willson for al1 their support and encouragement over the last Cour years. This research was supponed by scholarships from the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (AHFMR) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Coudof Canada (NSERC). In addition. the research reported in Chapters 1-6 was supponed by grants from AHFMR and NSERC to A. Kingstone; and the research reported in Chapters 5 and 7 was supported by a gant from NSERC to W. F. Bischof. Table of Contents CWTER 1: Introduction .................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER 2: Inhibition of Return and Visual Search .............................,.,. ....................... -9 CHAPTER 3: Inhibition of Return: Facilitation or Inhibition? ........................................ 27 Experiment 1 .......................................................................................................... 28 Method ....................................................................................................... 28 Results ................................................................................................... 31 Discussion .................................................................................................. 34 Experiment 2 .......................................................................................................... 35 Method .................... .. ................................................................................ -37 Results .................... ,, .................................................................................. 37 Discussion .................................................................................................. 39 Experiment 3 .......................................................................................................... 42 Method ....................................................................................................... 43 Results ........................................................................................................ 44 Discussion .............................................. ......................... ,., .................... 46 General Discussion of Experiments 1-3 .................................................................47 CHAPTER 4: Attention and Inhibition of Retum at Multiple Locations......................... 51 Expenment 4 .......................................................................................................... 56 Method ..........................,., ...................................................................... 57 Results....................................................................................................... -60 Discussion .................................................................................................. 65 Experiment 5 .......................................................................................................... 67 Method ....................................................................................................... 68 Results ........................................................................................................ 69 Discussion .................................................................................................. 74 Experiment 6 .......................................................................................................... 74 Method ............... ........................................................................................ 75 Results ........................................................................................................ 76 Discussion .................................................................................................. 78 General Discussion of Experiments 4-6 ................................................................. 78 CHAPTER 5: The Number Of Locations That Cm Be Inhibited And The Factors Detennining The Magnitude Of Inhibition Of Retum Across Cued Locations ................. 83 Experiment 7 .......................................................................................................... 83 Method...................................................................................................... -84 Results ........................................................................................................ 85 Discussion .................................................................................................. 89 Experiment 8 ......................................................................................................... -93 Method ....................................................................................................... 94 Results ....................................................................................................... -95 Discussion .................................................................................................. 97 Ex penment 9 ......................................................................................................... -98 Method ....................................................................................................... 99 Results ...................................................................................................... 100 Dicussion.................................................................................................. 104 Experiment 1 O ..................................................................................................... 106 Method ..................................................................................................... 107 Results ...................................................................................................... 108 Discussion ................................................................................................ 114 General Discussion of Experiments 7-1 0 ............................................................. 115 CHAPTER 6: Inhibition of Return in Visual Search Tasks ...........................................