Reward Weakened Inhibition of Return (IOR) in the Near Depth Plane

Abstract

In attentional orienting, researchers have proposed that reward history is a component of attentional control, as the reward value might enhance the spatial attention process to achieve more efficient goal-directed behavior and to improve target-detection performance. Although the effect of reward–induced motivation on attentional orienting has been studied in two–dimensional (2-D) space, the specific mechanisms underlying the influence of reward on inhibition of return (IOR) of attentional orienting in three-dimensional space (3-D) remain unclear. In the present study, by incorporating the Posner spatial-cueing paradigm into a virtual 3-D environment, we aimed to investigate the influence of reward on IOR in 3-D space. The results showed the following: (1) IOR size in the rewarded conditions was smaller than IOR size in the unrewarded condition in the near depth plane, resulting in an IOR difference with or without reward. (2) Reward weakened IOR in the near depth plane because the response to the uncued location was delayed, not because the response to the cued location was accelerated. The present study indicated that the different depth planes of the target location in 3-D space could influence the interaction between reward and IOR, and reward weakened IOR in the near depth plane.

Rewards weaken cross-modal inhibition of return with visual targets

“…Analysis of the RTs showed that the motivation induced in the high-reward condition facilitated the processing of sensory information, making the mean RTs in the high-reward group lower than in the low-reward group. This occurrence was consistent with previous findings that reward facilitated the processing of sensory information (Anderson et al, 2011; Failing & Theeuwes, 2014; Pooresmaeili et al, 2014; Wang et al, 2022; Weil et al, 2010). Despite the impressive complexity and processing power of the human brain, its capacity is severely limited (Marois & Ivanoff, 2005).…”

“…On the one hand, the sample size was based on previous studies of the cross-modal IOR and rewardbased attention (Bucker & Theeuwes, 2014;Handy et al, 1999;Wang et al, 2022); on the other hand, G * Power 3.1.9.7 (Faul et al, 2007(Faul et al, , 2009 was used to estimate the proper sample size (estimated effect size f = 0.25, alpha = 0.05, power = 0.95), suggesting a sample of 23 participants. Thirty-eight participants (16 males and 22 females; age range = 18-26 years, mean age = 20.3 ± 2.5 years) participated.…”

“…Prior studies on the effect of rewards on IOR were almost all conducted in the visual domain. These studies showed that reward weakened visual IOR, and the average response was faster in the high-reward group than in the low-reward group (Li et al, 2021; Wang et al, 2022). In addition, prior studies have shown that there is an interaction between reward and modality switching in cross-modal processing.…”

“…We manipulated the modalities through which the stimuli were presented (VA condition: cues were visual stimuli, targets were auditory stimuli; AV condition: cues were auditory stimuli, targets were visual stimuli) to investigate whether the use of rewards influenced cross-modal IOR. Because rewards influenced selective attention and weakened unimodal visual IOR (De Tommaso & Turatto, 2021; Li et al, 2021; Wang et al, 2022) and IOR may be supra-modal (Pierce et al, 2018; Spence et al, 2000), we hypothesized that high reward would weaken the cross-modal IOR effect.…”

Auditory and cross-modal attentional bias toward positive natural sounds: Behavioral and ERP evidence

“…The findings of Experiment 2 aligned with a recent study that examined spatial attention in 3-D space. It suggested that IOR size in the rewarded conditions was smaller than IOR size in the unrewarded condition and demonstrated that reward can attract much more attention in the near depth (Wang et al, 2022). Similarly, another study also demonstrated that social reward has the power to drive attention orienting behaviors (Hayward et al, 2018).…”