Disentangling the Roles of Cue Visibility and Knowledge in Adjusting Cognitive Control: A Preregistered Direct Replication of the Farooqui and Manly (2015) Study

Recent research suggests that people can learn to link the control process of task switching to predictive cues so that switch costs are attenuated following informative precues of switch likelihood. However, the precise conditions that shape such contextual cuing of control are not well understood. Farooqui and Manly (2015) raised the possibility that cued task switching is more effective when cues of control demand are presented subliminally. In the current study, we aimed to replicate and extend these findings by more systematically manipulating whether cues of control demand are consciously perceived or are presented subliminally and whether participants have explicit prior knowledge of the cue meaning or acquire cue knowledge through experience. The direct replication was unsuccessful: We found no evidence for effective subliminal cuing but observed some evidence for participants reducing switch costs with explicit, supraliminal cues. Thus, cognitive control may be guided most effectively by explicitly understood and consciously perceived precues.

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A Review of the Role of Cue Processing in Task Switching

Zeitschrift für Psychologie ◽

10.1027/2151-2604/a000125 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 221 (1) ◽

pp. 5-14 ◽

Cited By ~ 28

Author(s):

Kerstin Jost ◽

Wouter De Baene ◽

Iring Koch ◽

Marcel Brass

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Control ◽

Task Switching ◽

Task Switch ◽

Task Set ◽

Switch Costs ◽

Set Switching ◽

Controversial Topic ◽

Cue Encoding ◽

Cue Processing

The role of cue processing has become a controversial topic in research on cognitive control using task-switching procedures. Some authors suggested a priming account to explain switch costs as a form of encoding benefit when the cue from the previous trial is repeated and hence challenged theories that attribute task-switch costs to task-set (re)configuration. A rich body of empirical evidence has evolved that indeed shows that cue-encoding repetition priming is an important component in task switching. However, these studies also demonstrate that there are usually substantial “true” task-switch costs. Here, we review this behavioral, electrophysiological, and brain imaging evidence. Moreover, we describe alternative approaches to the explicit task-cuing procedure, such as the usage of transition cues or the task-span procedure. In addition, we address issues related to the type of cue, such as cue transparency. We also discuss methodological and theoretical implications and argue that the explicit task-cuing procedure is suitable to address issues of cognitive control and task-set switching.

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Dissociating proactively and retroactively cued task switching: a route towards neuropsychological analyses of cognitive control

Neuropsychological Trends ◽

10.7358/neur-2011-010-kopp ◽

2011 ◽

Author(s):

Bruno Kopp ◽

Karl Wessel

Keyword(s):

Young Adults ◽

Cognitive Control ◽

Response Time ◽

Task Switching ◽

Principal Component ◽

Switch Costs ◽

Principal Component Analyses ◽

Frontal Lesions

Cognitive control is often examined in task switching paradigms with dissociable types of task switching. Proactive task-cuing presents switch cues, signaling both a change of task and the task to implement, which occur prior to imperative events. Proactive transition-cuing utilizes switch cues, signaling a change of task but not indicating the required task, which occur prior to imperative events. Retroactive transition-cuing utilizes switch cues, again signaling a change of task but not indicating the required task, which occur later than imperative events. Thirty-six healthy young adults participated in the study. Response time switch costs were most pronounced on proactive task-cuing, whereas perseveration errors showed highest prevalence on retroactive transition-cuing. Principal component analyses revealed evidence for two components corresponding to the distinction between proactive and retroactive task-cuing, thus implying a dissociation between proactively and retroactively cued task switching. Retroactive transitioncuing might be particularly sensitive to frontal lesions of the cortex.

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Catecholaminergic modulation of the avoidance of cognitive control

10.1101/191015 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Monja I. Froböse ◽

Jennifer C. Swart ◽

Jennifer L. Cook ◽

Dirk E.M. Geurts ◽

Hanneke E.M. den Ouden ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Individual Differences ◽

Cognitive Control ◽

Task Performance ◽

Task Switching ◽

Control Process ◽

Healthy Adults ◽

Large Sample ◽

Trait Impulsivity ◽

Undermining Effect

AbstractThe catecholamines have long been associated with cognitive control and value-based decision-making. More recently, we proposed that the catecholamines might modulate value-based decision-making about whether or not to engage in cognitive control. We test this hypothesis by assessing effects of a catecholamine challenge in a large sample of young, healthy adults (n = 100) on the avoidance of a cognitively demanding control process: task switching. Prolonging catecholamine transmission by blocking reuptake with methylphenidate altered the avoidance, but not the execution of cognitive control. Crucially, these effects could be isolated by taking into account individual differences in trait impulsivity, so that participants with higher trait impulsivity became more avoidant of cognitive control, despite faster task performance. One implication of these findings is that performance-enhancing effects of methylphenidate may be accompanied by an undermining effect on the willingness to exert cognitive control. Taken together, these findings integrate hitherto segregated literatures on catecholamines’ roles in value-based learning/choice and cognitive control.

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Effects of Monetary Incentives on Task Switching

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000146 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 59 (4) ◽

pp. 216-226 ◽

Cited By ~ 36

Author(s):

Thomas Kleinsorge ◽

Gerhard Rinkenauer

Keyword(s):

Task Switching ◽

Temporal Dynamics ◽

Reward Processing ◽

General Level ◽

Monetary Incentives ◽

Switch Costs ◽

Expectancy Effect ◽

Reward Expectancy ◽

Trial Basis

In two experiments, effects of incentives on task switching were investigated. Incentives were provided as a monetary bonus. In both experiments, the availability of a bonus varied on a trial-to-trial basis. The main difference between the experiments relates to the association of incentives to individual tasks. In Experiment 1, the association of incentives to individual tasks was fixed. Under these conditions, the effect of incentives was largely due to reward expectancy. Switch costs were reduced to statistical insignificance. This was true even with the task that was not associated with a bonus. In Experiment 2, there was a variable association of incentives to individual tasks. Under these conditions, the reward expectancy effect was bound to conditions with a well-established bonus-task association. In conditions in which the bonus-task association was not established in advance, enhanced performance of the bonus task was accompanied by performance decrements with the task that was not associated with a bonus. Reward expectancy affected mainly the general level of performance. The outcome of this study may also inform recently suggested neurobiological accounts about the temporal dynamics of reward processing.

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The Flip Side of the Auditory Spatial Selection Benefit

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000274 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 62 (1) ◽

pp. 66-74 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Iring Koch ◽

Vera Lawo

Keyword(s):

Task Switching ◽

Auditory Task ◽

Numerical Magnitude ◽

Attention Shifting ◽

Gender Selection ◽

Spatial Selection ◽

Number Words ◽

Switch Costs ◽

Mixing Costs ◽

Experimental Group

In cued auditory task switching, one of two dichotically presented number words, spoken by a female and a male, had to be judged according to its numerical magnitude. One experimental group selected targets by speaker gender and another group by ear of presentation. In mixed-task blocks, the target-defining feature (male/female vs. left/right) was cued prior to each trial, but in pure blocks it remained constant. Compared to selection by gender, selection by ear led to better performance in pure blocks than in mixed blocks, resulting in larger “global” mixing costs for ear-based selection. Selection by ear also led to larger “local” switch costs in mixed blocks, but this finding was partially mediated by differential cue-repetition benefits. Together, the data suggest that requirements of attention shifting diminish the auditory spatial selection benefit.

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The Bilingual Cognitive Control Mechanism of Highly Proficient Cantonese-Mandarin Speakers: Evidence from A Dual-task Switching Paradigm

Acta Psychologica Sinica ◽

10.3724/sp.j.1041.2015.00439 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 47 (4) ◽

pp. 439

Author(s):

Xiaoyu LIU ◽

Chaodan HE ◽

Jun CHEN ◽

Qinli DENG

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Control ◽

Task Switching ◽

Dual Task ◽

Control Mechanism ◽

Mandarin Speakers

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Fast Neural Dynamics of Proactive Cognitive Control in a Task-Switching Analogue of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test

Brain Topography ◽

10.1007/s10548-017-0607-6 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 31 (3) ◽

pp. 407-418 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Gema Díaz-Blancat ◽

Juan García-Prieto ◽

Fernando Maestú ◽

Francisco Barceló

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Control ◽

Task Switching ◽

Wisconsin Card Sorting Test ◽

Neural Dynamics ◽

Card Sorting ◽

Wisconsin Card Sorting ◽

Sorting Test

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EXPRESS: When Two Actors Perform Different Tasks: Still No Evidence for Shared Task-Sets in Joint Task Switching

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology ◽

10.1177/17470218211031545 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 174702182110315

Author(s):

Motonori Yamaguchi ◽

Husnain H. Shah ◽

Bernhard Hommel

Keyword(s):

Task Switching ◽

The Other ◽

Shared Task ◽

Joint Condition ◽

Task Instructions ◽

Switch Costs ◽

Joint Task ◽

Task Sets ◽

Rule Out

Two different variations of joint task switching led to different conclusions as to whether co-acting individuals share the same task-sets. The present study aimed at bridging this gap by replicating the version in which two actors performed two different tasks. Experiment 1 showed switch costs across two actors in a joint condition, which agreed with previous studies, but also yielded even larger switch costs in a solo condition, which contradicted the claim that actors represent an alternative task as their own when it is carried out by the co-actor but not when no one carries it out. Experiments 2 and 3 further examined switch costs in the solo condition with the aim to rule out possible influences of task instructions for and experiences with the other task that was not assigned to the actor. Before participants were instructed on the second of the two tasks, switch costs were still obtained without a co-actor when explicit task names (“COLOUR” and “SHAPE”) served as go/nogo signals (Experiment 2), but not when arbitrary symbols (“XXXX” and “”) served as go/nogo signals (Experiment 3). The results thus imply that switch costs depend on participants’ knowledge of task cues being assigned to two different tasks, but not on whether the other task is performed by a co-actor. These findings undermine the assumption that switch costs in the joint conditions reflect shared task-sets between co-actors in this procedure.

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