Crossmodal and multisensory inhibition of return (IOR) and IOR-like inhibitory effects.

Abstract

In this narrative theoretical review, I take a closer look at the last 40 years of research on the cuing of attention and the often-related inhibition of return in the spatial senses of vision, audition, and touch. A distinction is made between perceptual versus response-based facilitation and inhibition in these two putatively related phenomena. Ray Klein has long been interested in the phenomenon of inhibition of return, though mostly from a unisensory visual perspective. This review highlights how examining these attentional and response-related phenomena outside of the visual modality (e.g., in audition and in touch), as well as crossmodally, and in a multisensory context, has helped to further our understanding of both empirical phenomena. The putative existence of attentional orienting and inhibition of return-like inhibitory phenomena outside of the spatial domain, as when attentional selection relates to a specific stimulus dimension (such as hue), semantic category, or even sensory modality, is also discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).