Inhibition of return to object-bound location in identification and localization tasks

Inhibition of return (IOR) refers to a bias against returning visual attention to a location that has been previously attended to. Two experiments examined the functional representations of IOR. In the localization task (Experiment 1B), there was IOR based on both object-bound and retinal coordinate representations, but no IOR for the identification task (Experiment 1A) or temporal feature (stimulus orientation or location) matching tasks (Experiments 2A and 2B). The selective occurrence of IOR in the localization task suggests that IOR may be an adaptive bias in the visual control of action. The neural basis of IOR is discussed in terms of two distinct functional pathways (perception and action) of visual system.