The benefits of specialization in groups: Task switching, managing risk, and individual efficiency

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

Ethnic Differences in Self-Poisoning Across South London

Crisis ◽

10.1027/0227-5910/a000258 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 35 (4) ◽

pp. 268-272

Author(s):

Sean Cross ◽

Dinesh Bhugra ◽

Paul I. Dargan ◽

David M. Wood ◽

Shaun L. Greene ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Black Women ◽

Data Collection ◽

White Women ◽

Population Based ◽

Care Services ◽

Self Harm ◽

Managing Risk ◽

The Uk ◽

Incident Cases ◽

Minority Ethnic

Background: Self-poisoning (overdose) is the commonest form of self-harm cases presenting to acute secondary care services in the UK, where there has been limited investigation of self-harm in black and minority ethnic communities. London has the UK’s most ethnically diverse areas but presents challenges in resident-based data collection due to the large number of hospitals. Aims: To investigate the rates and characteristics of self-poisoning presentations in two central London boroughs. Method: All incident cases of self-poisoning presentations of residents of Lambeth and Southwark were identified over a 12-month period through comprehensive acute and mental health trust data collection systems at multiple hospitals. Analysis was done using STATA 12.1. Results: A rate of 121.4/100,000 was recorded across a population of more than half a million residents. Women exceeded men in all measured ethnic groups. Black women presented 1.5 times more than white women. Gender ratios within ethnicities were marked. Among those aged younger than 24 years, black women were almost 7 times more likely to present than black men were. Conclusion: Self-poisoning is the commonest form of self-harm presentation to UK hospitals but population-based rates are rare. These results have implications for formulating and managing risk in clinical services for both minority ethnic women and men.

Download Full-text

Phasic Alertness and the Residual Task-Switching Cost

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169.52.2.109 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 52 (2) ◽

pp. 109-124 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

Nachshon Meiran ◽

Ziv Chorev

Keyword(s):

Task Switching ◽

Target Stimulus ◽

Switching Cost ◽

Optimal Interval ◽

Phasic Alertness ◽

Goal Representation

Abstract. Participants switched between two randomly ordered discrimination tasks and each trial began with the presentation of a task cue instructing which task to execute. The authors induced phasic alertness by presenting a salient uninformative stimulus after the task cue was provided, and at variable intervals before the target stimulus was presented (Experiments 1-3) or before the task cue (Experiment 4). When the alerting stimulus preceded the target stimulus or the task cue by an optimal interval, RT was faster, indicating an alert state and the task-switching cost was reduced. These results support the suggestion of De Jong (Acta Psychologica, 1999 ) that alertness improves the overcoming of retrieval competition through improved goal representation, but also show that the effect is specific to the residual task-switching cost.

Download Full-text

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.

Download Full-text

Task Switching – Maturation of a Paradigm

Zeitschrift für Psychologie ◽

10.1027/2151-2604/a000124 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 221 (1) ◽

pp. 1-4 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Iring Koch ◽

Marcel Brass

Keyword(s):

Task Switching

Download Full-text

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.

Download Full-text

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.

Download Full-text