Abstract: Self-referential information is a special type of social signals, which can attract attention in a bottom-up fashion. Previous studies have found that, self-referential cues can be more efficient capturing reflexive attention at the early stage of perceptual processing. However, it is unclear whether self-referential cues are powerful enough to persistently modulate attention orientation even at the later stage of perceptual processing. To address this issue, we applied Posner’s cue-target paradigm to investigate whether the magnitude of inhibition of return (IOR) is modulated by temporarily established self-referential cues. Seventeen paid undergraduate students (aged between 19 and 24 years old; 8 females and 9 males) participated in this study. All participants were right-handed and had normal or corrected-to-normal vision. The experiment was composed by an association training task and a spatial cueing task. In the association training task, we first trained participants to associate two colorful (red or green) squares with themselves or one of their friends, and then we tested that if the relationships of squares and meanings were fully established. In the spatial cueing task, we used a 3(Cue type: self-referential cue, friend-referential cue, meaningless cue)×2(Cue-target location: same, different) within-subject design. The trial began with a central fixation and two boxes on each side, after 800ms, a cue was shown randomly onscreen for 300ms in one side of boxes. After a 400ms delay (for a cue-target stimulus onset asynchrony of 700ms), the target asterisk was presented in any side of boxes. Participants were introduced to respond rapidly when they detected target asterisk appeared in the box. The experiment found that, (1) all participants had high accuracy in the association training task, and participants responded more quickly to the square associated with themselves than the one associated with a friend. (2) More importantly, in the spatial cueing task we found that, comparing to temporarily established friend-referential cues (22ms) and meaningless cues (21ms), temporarily established self-referential cues (2ms) triggered less magnitude of IOR. With further analyses, we identified the cause of less magnitude of IOR is，when the target was appeared at the cued location, participants provided quicker responses to the target after temporarily established self-referential cues (318ms), comparing to response to the target after temporarily established friend-referential cues (343ms) or meaningless cues (339ms). The results indicate that colored squares could be temporarily associated with self or a friend after a simple training procedure, and temporarily established self-referential cues could reduce the magnitude of IOR, and impel individuals to return more quickly to the location that paid attention to previously. In conclusion, those findings suggest that self-referential stimuli, as a sort of biologically important cues, could modulate attention even at the later stage of inhibition. The results also provided a new evidence for the view of IOR as an adaptive foraging facilitator designed to maximize our chances of detecting biologically important information in the visual field or organism’s surroundings.

Key words: inhibition of return (IOR), self, cue-target paradigm

摘要： 采用经典线索-靶子范式，考察了暂时建立的自我参照线索对返回抑制（inhibition of return, IOR）效应量的调节作用。结果发现，在暂时建立的朋友参照线索或无意义线索条件下均产生了IOR效应，但是在暂时建立的自我参照线索条件下IOR效应没有出现，这是因为相比暂时建立的朋友参照线索或无意义线索，被试对呈现在暂时建立的自我参照线索后的靶刺激的反应更快。结果表明，自我相关信息能够削弱IOR的效应量，并为IOR是一种进化适应性的视觉搜索促进机制提供了新的证据。

关键词: 返回抑制, 自我, 线索-靶子范式