Control processes in voluntary and explicitly cued task switching

Abstract

Explicitly cued task switching slows performance relative to performing the same task on consecutive trials. This effect appears to be due partly to more efficient encoding of the task cue when the same cue is used on consecutive trials and partly to an additional task-switching process. These components were examined by comparing explicitly cued and voluntary task switching groups, with external cues presented to both groups. Cue-switch effects varied in predictable ways to dissociate explicitly cued and voluntary task switching, whereas task-switch effects had similar characteristics for both instructional groups. The data were well fitted by a mathematical model of task switching that included a cue-encoding mechanism (whereby cue repetition improves performance) and an additional process that was invoked on task-switch trials. Analyses of response-time distributions suggest that this additional process involves task-set reconfiguration that may or may not be engaged before the target stimulus is presented.

Keywords:

• Cue encoding
• Task switching
• Voluntary task switching

We thank Marnie Jedynak for assistance with data collection and analysis and Gordon Logan for helpful suggestions on model fitting.This research was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada through a discovery grant to Michael Masson and a postgraduate scholarship to Sarah Carruthers.