Effect of Cue and Task Type on Inhibition of Return in Sustained Attention Task

Inhibition of return (IOR) is a robust phenomenon that refers to slow response at previously seen location than new location. IOR helps attention to orient towards novel or uncued locations. In the present study effect of cue (valid & invalid cue) and task type (Discrimination & detection tasks) is explored on the IOR phenomenon during sustained attention tasks. A 2 (Task type: Detection & Discrimination Tasks) x 2 (Cue Validity: Valid & Invalid) x 3 (time period: blocks of 10 min) mixed factorial design with repeated measure on the last two factors has been employed. Correct detection and RT were taken as performance measures. Results revealed significant effect of cue on correct detection. Participants detected more targets under valid cue condition than invalid cue in discrimination task in all three blocks while in detection task after the first block participants detected more targets under invalid cue than valid cue. RT results showed that response was facilitated under valid cue than invalid cue condition. Thus, the findings showed that IOR was not seen in discrimination as well as detection task. Probably the SOA level was not sufficient to generate the IOR. Small sample size and nature of task also may be responsible for not generating the IOR.