Flexibility in task switching by monolinguals and bilinguals

Many bilinguals routinely switch between their languages, yet mixed evidence exists about the transfer of language switching skills to broader domains that require attentional control such as task switching. Monolingual and bilingual young adults performed a nonverbal task-switching paradigm in which they viewed colored pictures of animals and indicated either the animal or its color in response to a cue. Monolinguals and bilinguals performed similarly when switching between tasks (local switch cost) in a mixed-task block, but bilinguals demonstrated a smaller mixing effect (global switch cost) than monolinguals, indicating better ability to reconfigure stimulus–response associations. These results suggest that regular practice using multiple languages confers a broader executive function advantage shown as improved flexibility in task switching.

Download Full-text

Preparing or Executing the Wrong Task: The Influence on Switch Effects

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology ◽

10.1080/17470218.2011.645840 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 65 (6) ◽

pp. 1172-1184 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Charlotte Desmet ◽

Wim Fias ◽

Marcel Brass

Keyword(s):

Task Switching ◽

Switch Cost ◽

Original Study ◽

Stimulus Response ◽

Task Preparation ◽

Response Execution ◽

The Moment ◽

Response Errors ◽

Bivalent Stimulus ◽

Task Activation

In a previous study, it was proposed that executing a task leads to task strengthening. In other words, task activation at the moment of response execution determines subsequent switch effects (Steinhauser & Hübner, 2006). The authors investigated this issue by comparing switch effects after task and response errors. However, the use of bivalent stimulus–response mappings might have obscured some of the effects. Therefore, we replicated the experiment using univalent stimulus–response mappings. With this adjusted design, which overcomes some shortcomings of the original study, we were able to replicate the finding of switch benefits after task errors. Closer inspection of the data showed the importance of preexecution processes on subsequent switch effects. In a second experiment, we further elaborated on these preexecution processes. More precisely, we investigated the effect of task preparation on subsequent switch effects. Taken together, our data extend current accounts of task switching by showing that the preparatory processes occurring before the response on trial n influence the switch cost on trial n + 1.

Download Full-text

Physical Activity Effects On Executive Function During Task Switching In Young Adults

Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise ◽

10.1249/01.mss.0000384958.42883.2e ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 42 ◽

pp. 430

Author(s):

Keita Kamijo ◽

Yuji Takeda

Keyword(s):

Physical Activity ◽

Young Adults ◽

Executive Function ◽

Task Switching

Download Full-text

Regular physical activity improves executive function during task switching in young adults

International Journal of Psychophysiology ◽

10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2010.01.002 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 75 (3) ◽

pp. 304-311 ◽

Cited By ~ 49

Author(s):

Keita Kamijo ◽

Yuji Takeda

Keyword(s):

Physical Activity ◽

Young Adults ◽

Executive Function ◽

Task Switching ◽

Regular Physical Activity

Download Full-text

Stimulus–response complexity influences task-set inhibition in task switching

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.10988 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

pp. e10988

Author(s):

Li Zhao ◽

Saisai Hu ◽

Yingying Xia ◽

Jinyu Li ◽

Jingjing Zhao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Task Switching ◽

Switch Cost ◽

Additional Experiment ◽

Task Set ◽

Cognitive Resource ◽

Stimulus Response ◽

Difficult Condition ◽

Easy Condition ◽

Inhibition Performance ◽

The Impact

Previous studies have found that inhibiting a task set plays an important role in task switching. However, the impact of stimulus–response (S–R) complexity on this inhibition processing has not been explored. In this study, we applied the backward inhibition paradigm (switching between tasks A, B, and C, presented in sets of three) in order to investigate inhibition performance under different S–R complexities caused by corresponding S–R mappings. The results showed that the difficult condition resulted in a greater switch cost than the moderate and easy conditions. Furthermore, we found a significant n−2 repetition cost under the easy S–R complexity that was reversed under the difficult S–R complexity. To verify stability of the reversed n−2 repetition cost in the difficult condition, we recruited another independent sample to conduct an additional experiment with the difficult condition. These results replicated the reversed n−2 repetition cost. These findings suggest that S–R complexity affects task-set inhibition in task switching because the effect of the task-set inhibition was insignificant when the S–R complexity increased; it was only significant under the easy condition. This result was caused by the different cognitive resource assignments.

Download Full-text

Task-Switching Training and Transfer

Journal of Psychophysiology ◽

10.1027/0269-8803/a000189 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 32 (3) ◽

pp. 106-130 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Zsófia Anna Gaál ◽

István Czigler

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Young Adults ◽

Cognitive Training ◽

Task Switching ◽

Difficulty Level ◽

Training Procedure ◽

Far Transfer ◽

Near Transfer ◽

Related Potentials ◽

Transfer Tasks

Abstract. We used task-switching (TS) paradigms to study how cognitive training can compensate age-related cognitive decline. Thirty-nine young (age span: 18–25 years) and 40 older (age span: 60–75 years) women were assigned to training and control groups. The training group received 8 one-hour long cognitive training sessions in which the difficulty level of TS was individually adjusted. The other half of the sample did not receive any intervention. The reference task was an informatively cued TS paradigm with nogo stimuli. Performance was measured on reference, near-transfer, and far-transfer tasks by behavioral indicators and event-related potentials (ERPs) before training, 1 month after pretraining, and in case of older adults, 1 year later. The results showed that young adults had better pretraining performance. The reference task was too difficult for older adults to form appropriate representations as indicated by the behavioral data and the lack of P3b components. But after training older adults reached the level of performance of young participants, and accordingly, P3b emerged after both the cue and the target. Training gain was observed also in near-transfer tasks, and partly in far-transfer tasks; working memory and executive functions did not improve, but we found improvement in alerting and orienting networks, and in the execution of variants of TS paradigms. Behavioral and ERP changes remained preserved even after 1 year. These findings suggest that with an appropriate training procedure older adults can reach the level of performance seen in young adults and these changes persist for a long period. The training also affects the unpracticed tasks, but the transfer depends on the extent of task similarities.

Download Full-text