Abstract: A series of experiments are reported in wich participants were required to report the spatial localization of a target stimulus on each trial. By manipulating the selection demands of the each of the first and second of two consecutive displays the relation between two inhibitory priming effects, negative priming and inhibition of return, was examined. The results suggest that the distinction between negative priming and inhibition of return may be limited to the procedures conventionally used to measure the two effects. Two theoretical frameworks that attribute negative priming and inhibition of return to common mechanisms are discussed. The first is based on two closely related neural network models, and explains both effects by reference to inhibition of the internal representations associated with primed (or cued) locations. The second theoretical framework accounts for both negative priming and inhibition of return by reference to a temporal discrimination process that occurs during response to the probe (or target).

(1997). Submitted: JEP:General