The effects of practice on object-based, location-based, and static-display inhibition of return

We report two experiments that examine the effects of practice on object-based, location-based, and static-display inhibition of return (IOR). The results are clear: AU. three effects get smaller with practice. These findings are at odds with the results of Muller and von Muhlenen (1996), who failed to observe object-based IOR and detected no effect of practice on static-display IOR. However, their subjects were more practiced than ours prior to data collection. We suggest, therefore, that the reducing effect of practice on IOR might have occurred in their unrecorded practice sessions. We also discuss a two-process model in which IOR is seen as the net effect of underlying inhibitory and excitatory processes. In such models (e.g., Solomon & Corbit, 1974), practice often results in a reduction of the net effect of the two processes.