Abstract: PURPOSE: Object-based inhibition of return (IOR) acts as a foraging facilitator that inhibits the re-attention to previously inspected locations. However, most of them were conducted in two-dimensional planes rather than three-dimensional spaces, it is not clear how the characteristics of object-based IOR change when objects cross depths. This study aims to explore the effects of depth and object representation on object-based IOR in three-dimensional spaces, and to provide theoretical support for traffic and design fields while expanding the theories of attentional spreading and attentional prioritization.
METHODS: Virtual reality technology was used to present a double-rectangle paradigm. Experiment 1 used simple drawings with parallax as double rectangles; Experiment 2 removed parallax to eliminate confounding variables; Experiments 3, 4, and 5 used real objects with parallax, with the difference that the objects in Experiment 4 were more salient, and the similarity between the two objects in Experiment 5 was lower.
RESULTS: Experiment 1 only had object-based IOR in near space; Experiment 2 had object-based IOR in both upper and lower visual fields, and there was no significant difference; Experiments 3 and 4 only had object-based IOR in far space; Experiment 5 had object-based IOR in both far and near spaces.
CONCLUSIONS: Object-based IOR of simple drawings only exists in near space, and object-based IOR of real objects initially only exists in far space, and also appears in near space as object similarity decreases. Attentional spreading affects object-based IOR of simple drawings, while attentional prioritization dominates object-based IOR of real objects.

Key words: object-based attention, inhibition of return, virtual reality