Klein (1988) reported that inhibitory tagging (i.e. inhibition of return in visual search) made reaction times for the detection of small probes increase at locations where there had previously been rejected items in serial visual search. It is reasonable that the attended and rejected locations are inhibited. However, subsequent studies did not support Klein's idea. In these studies, inhibitory tagging was tested after removing the items from the search tasks. The paradigms in these studies were not appropriate for testing an object-based inhibitory effect because the objects (i.e., items) were removed from the display. In the present study, we found that evidence of inhibitory tagging could be observed only when the items of the search tasks were maintained until the responses for the small probes were made. This appeared to be an object-based effect.When a person searches a visual field for a target that is defined by a simple visual feature (e.g., a vertical line target among horizontal line distractors), it can be detected efficiently and effortlessly, irrespective of the set size of the search items. However, if a target is defined by spatial arrangement (e.g., a "T" target among ''1:' distractors), the detection performance is inefficient (Treisman & Gelade, 1980). Efficient processing for some arrays (e.g., a "C" target among "0" distractors) becomes ineffective when the characteristics oftarget and distractor are exchanged (i.e., an "0" target among "C" distractors). This is called search asymmetry (Treisman & Gormican, 1988;Treisman & Souther, 1985).Many models of visual search assume that the arrays which elicit efficient search are processed in parallel and that those which elicit inefficient search are processed serially (Treisman & Gelade, 1980;Wolfe, Cave, & Franzel, 1989; but see also Duncan & Humphreys, 1989). Serial processing involves deployments of attention from item to item, serially. Preventing the return of attention to previously visited items can improve the efficiency of search by preventing ineffective reexaminations of rejected distractors (Klein, 1988). Klein proposed that returning attention is inhibited by inhibitory tagging. The inhibitory tagging hypothesis is based on Posner's inhibition ofreturn (see Posner & Cohen, 1984). Klein (1988) demonstrated inhibitory tagging by first requiring his subjects to perform either an efficient par- aile! search or an inefficient serial search. After each response in the search task, a luminance detection task was given. The luminance probe was presented at a location that had been occupied by a search item (on probe) or a previously empty location (ofJprobe). Klein used the difference in reaction time (RT) between on probe and off probe as a measure of inhibitory tagging and other factors (e.g., forward masking) that might be operating when a stimulus is prevented from appearing in the location of a previous stimulus. Because he found that this difference was greater in serial than in parallel search (a difference unlikely to be attributed ...

The purpose of this study was to compare the lambda response of eye-fixation-related potentials (EFRPs) with the P100 component of pattern-reversal visual-evoked potentials. EFRPs were obtained by averaging EEGs time-locked to the offset of the saccade. The dipole of the lambda response and that of the P100 component were estimated by the dipole-tracing method (Musha & Homma, 1990). The locations of their dipoles at the occipital sites were very close to each other when the difference waveform, which was calculatedby subtracting the EFRP to the patternless stimulus from the EFRP to the patterned stimulus, was used for the lambda response. This finding implies that the lambda response and P100 have a common neural generator in the visual cortex. However, the peak latency of the lambda response was shorter than that of P100. The saccades in the EFRP trial were considered to be the cause of the difference.

The neural mechanisms underlying visual estimation of subsecond durations remain unknown, but perisaccadic underestimation of interflash intervals may provide a clue as to the nature of these mechanisms. Here we found that simply reducing the flash visibility, particularly the visibility of transient signals, induced similar time underestimation by human observers. Our results suggest that weak transient responses fail to trigger the proper detection of temporal asynchrony, leading to increased perception of simultaneity and apparent time compression.

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The present study examined how the level of trait anxiety, which is a personality characteristic, influences state anxiety and penalty shoot-out performance under pressure by instruction. The high and low trait anxiety groups were selected by using Spielberger's Trait Anxiety Scale, with trait anxiety scores, and control and pressure conditions manipulated by instructions. The participants were two groups of eight university male soccer players. They individually performed 20 shots from the penalty shoot-out point, aiming at the top right and top left corner areas in the soccer goal. Each condition had 10 trials in a within-subject design. The dependent measures comprised the number of successful goals and the state anxiety scores under each instructional condition. The result showed a significant main effect of instruction. State anxiety scores increased more and the number of successful goals decreased more in high trait anxiety groups than in low trait anxiety groups under pressure instructional condition. These findings suggest that players with higher trait anxiety scores tend to experience increased state anxiety under a pressure-laden condition, and higher state anxiety interferes with goal performance.