Learning to direct attention: Consequences for procedural task training programs.

Procedural training programs such as augmented and virtual reality programs often present cues that direct trainees' attention to particular locations and/or items to facilitate learning. However, the impact of different types of cues on trainees' learning is poorly understood. For example, cues that indicate the location of to-be-pressed buttons might cause a trainee to focus on button locations rather than their icons.

Evidence for an attentional component of inhibition of return in visual search.

Inhibition of return (IOR) is typically described as an inhibitory bias against returning attention to a recently attended location as a means of promoting efficient visual search. Most studies examining IOR, however, either do not use visual search paradigms or do not effectively isolate attentional processes, making it difficult to conclusively link IOR to a bias in attention. Here, we recorded ERPs during a simple visual search task designed to isolate the attentional component of IOR to examine whether an inhibitory bias of attention is observed and, if so, how it influences visual search behavior.