Effects of Asymmetrical Distribution in the Left-right Visual Field on Inhibition of Return

Inhibition of return (IOR) refers to a bias against returning attention to a location that has been recently attended. In the present study, the effects of asymmetrical distribution on IOR were explored in 2 experiments. Subjects were asked to detect respectively the target location in experiment 1. The results showed significant inhibition in the cued location and there was a main effect of the visual fields. In contrast, subjects only responded to the left or right visual field where the target appeared in experiment 2, and also obtained significant inhibition in the validity condition, but no main effect of the visual fields was found. The present studies indicated that IOR correlated nearly with the location distribution, especially to asymmetrical spatial distribution. It supposedly benefited the response to a target on asymmetrical distribution in the natural environment and accelerated visual search. Finally, we discussed the present results and proposed a novel viewpoint of resource redeployment on IOR. This viewpoint indicated sufficiency that there were flexibility and plasticity on IOR in visual search