MemIORy: The relationship between inhibition of return and short-term memory in visual search

Visual search is an essential human behavior. Visual search is defined as a search for a target object (like a 5-cent-coin or a specific book) under a variety of other (distractor) objects (i.e. all the coins in our purse or all books in the book shelf). Previous research has indicated that different processes can facilitate visual search. That is, these processes ensure that we can search for a target efficiently. One of these processes is inhibition of return (IOR). Due to IOR, recently inspected objects are inhibited and therefore the search is guided more towards new objects. For example, while we are searching for the 5-cent-coin we do not immediately look back to a coin that we have just inspected and rejected as “non-target” but search through the coins we have not inspected so far. Another important process that supports visual search is short-term memory (STM). STM ensures that we can remember which objects (i.e., coins) we have recently inspected and where they are located. Even though IOR and STM seem to be similar processes (as both track which items were inspected), there is not much research on how or to what extent both processes interact in visual search. In order to investigate this question, we utilize state-of-the-art eye tracking methodology.