Behavioural goals determine inhibitory mechanisms of selective attention

It has been argued that during selection of target objects, irrelevant distractor objects are inhibited (e.g. Tipper, 1985). This article examines whether distractor inhibition is an invariant process that occurs in the same way for each act of selection, or whether it is a flexible process that adjusts to particular behavioural goals. We review previous studies and report new experiments that demonstrate that inhibition is a flexible process. Those internal representations of the distractor that are most associated with the action to be directed toward the target are inhibited. Other properties of the ignored object can remain in an active state and can facilitate subsequent behaviour.