Mind Hacks

Hack #38. Don’t Look Back!

Your visual attention contains a basic function that puts the dampers on second glances.

There are layers and layers of functions and processing in the brain. One—attention—is a collaborative exercise between voluntary application of attention and automatic mechanisms to snap attention to where it’s needed [[Hack #37]]. Even the voluntary application of attention is a negotiation with what evolution has taught the brain is most sensible. In particular, the brain doesn’t like to return attention to a place or object it has just left. This phenomenon is called inhibition of return.

In Action

Like negative priming [[Hack #42]], which is how contextual features are suppressed from attention, inhibition of return is such a low-level effect that it’s hard to show without precision timing equipment. Again, just like those other effects, it turns up in all kinds of cases because attention is so widely employed.

Imagine you’re taking part in an experiment in which an icon flashes up on a screen and you have to touch that position. It’ll take you longer to move and touch the icon if some other icon had previously, and recently, been in that position.

Inhibition doesn’t kick in immediately. Let’s say you’re playing Whack-A-Mole, in which moles emerge from holes and you have to hit them with a hammer. A hole could light up momentarily before the mole appears. This would be a prime candidate for the inhibition-of-return effect. If the brightening occurs very shortly before ...