Inhibition of return

Inhibition of return ( IOR ) ( German as: " inhibition of return" ) describes a phenomenon of eye movement: Observed a subject an object at a particular location fine ( between 100 and 300 milliseconds), then it is very unlikely that he claimed a change in focus (so-called saccade ) again hinschaut there again, but instead look at other areas not considered. It therefore assumes that the function of IOR is to gain as much information and to discover new things.

The phenomenon was first described by Michael Posner and Yoav Cohen, who tried in vain to show that the reaction time for locating specific objects at the old position is less than at a new position. Also cues at the same position before the emergence of the desired object can trigger the IOR to the cue but must appear at least between 300 and 500 milliseconds before. For shorter time interval (100-300 ms ) is improved, however, the reaction time.