Inhibition of Return in Fear of Spiders: Discrepant Eye Movement and Reaction Time Data

Inhibition of return (IOR) refers to a bias against returning the attention to a previously attended location. As a foraging facilitator it is thought to facilitate systematic visual search. With respect to neutral stimuli, this is generally thought to be adaptive, but when threatening stimuli appea...

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Main Authors:	Elisa Berdica, Antje B. M. Gerdes, Andre Pittig, Georg W. Alpers
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	Hindawi Limited 2014-01-01
Series:	Journal of Ophthalmology
Online Access:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/183924

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spelling	doaj-0cf8f57c65134fe89f01afacd3ac55932020-11-24T22:31:53ZengHindawi LimitedJournal of Ophthalmology2090-004X2090-00582014-01-01201410.1155/2014/183924183924Inhibition of Return in Fear of Spiders: Discrepant Eye Movement and Reaction Time DataElisa Berdica0Antje B. M. Gerdes1Andre Pittig2Georg W. Alpers3Department of Psychology, Clinical and Biological Psychology and Psychotherapy, School of Social Sciences, University of Mannheim, L13, 15-17, 68131 Mannheim, GermanyDepartment of Psychology, Clinical and Biological Psychology and Psychotherapy, School of Social Sciences, University of Mannheim, L13, 15-17, 68131 Mannheim, GermanyDepartment of Psychology, Clinical and Biological Psychology and Psychotherapy, School of Social Sciences, University of Mannheim, L13, 15-17, 68131 Mannheim, GermanyDepartment of Psychology, Clinical and Biological Psychology and Psychotherapy, School of Social Sciences, University of Mannheim, L13, 15-17, 68131 Mannheim, GermanyInhibition of return (IOR) refers to a bias against returning the attention to a previously attended location. As a foraging facilitator it is thought to facilitate systematic visual search. With respect to neutral stimuli, this is generally thought to be adaptive, but when threatening stimuli appear in our environment, such a bias may be maladaptive. This experiment investigated the influence of phobia-related stimuli on the IOR effect using a discrimination task. A sample of 50 students (25 high, 25 low in spider fear) completed an IOR task including schematic representations of spiders or butterflies as targets. Eye movements were recorded and to assess discrimination among targets, participants indicated with button presses if targets were spiders or butterflies. Reaction time data did not reveal a significant IOR effect but a significant interaction of group and target; spider fearful participants were faster to respond to spider targets than to butterflies. Furthermore, eye-tracking data showed a robust IOR effect independent of stimulus category. These results offer a more comprehensive assessment of the motor and oculomotor factors involved in the IOR effect.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/183924
collection	DOAJ
language	English
format	Article
sources	DOAJ
author	Elisa Berdica Antje B. M. Gerdes Andre Pittig Georg W. Alpers
spellingShingle	Elisa Berdica Antje B. M. Gerdes Andre Pittig Georg W. Alpers Inhibition of Return in Fear of Spiders: Discrepant Eye Movement and Reaction Time Data Journal of Ophthalmology
author_facet	Elisa Berdica Antje B. M. Gerdes Andre Pittig Georg W. Alpers
author_sort	Elisa Berdica
title	Inhibition of Return in Fear of Spiders: Discrepant Eye Movement and Reaction Time Data
title_short	Inhibition of Return in Fear of Spiders: Discrepant Eye Movement and Reaction Time Data
title_full	Inhibition of Return in Fear of Spiders: Discrepant Eye Movement and Reaction Time Data
title_fullStr	Inhibition of Return in Fear of Spiders: Discrepant Eye Movement and Reaction Time Data
title_full_unstemmed	Inhibition of Return in Fear of Spiders: Discrepant Eye Movement and Reaction Time Data
title_sort	inhibition of return in fear of spiders: discrepant eye movement and reaction time data
publisher	Hindawi Limited
series	Journal of Ophthalmology
issn	2090-004X 2090-0058
publishDate	2014-01-01
description	Inhibition of return (IOR) refers to a bias against returning the attention to a previously attended location. As a foraging facilitator it is thought to facilitate systematic visual search. With respect to neutral stimuli, this is generally thought to be adaptive, but when threatening stimuli appear in our environment, such a bias may be maladaptive. This experiment investigated the influence of phobia-related stimuli on the IOR effect using a discrimination task. A sample of 50 students (25 high, 25 low in spider fear) completed an IOR task including schematic representations of spiders or butterflies as targets. Eye movements were recorded and to assess discrimination among targets, participants indicated with button presses if targets were spiders or butterflies. Reaction time data did not reveal a significant IOR effect but a significant interaction of group and target; spider fearful participants were faster to respond to spider targets than to butterflies. Furthermore, eye-tracking data showed a robust IOR effect independent of stimulus category. These results offer a more comprehensive assessment of the motor and oculomotor factors involved in the IOR effect.
url	http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/183924
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Inhibition of Return in Fear of Spiders: Discrepant Eye Movement and Reaction Time Data

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