Relationship between Task-Switching and Task-Mixing Costs

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gijsbert Stoet ◽  
Daryl B. O'Connor ◽  
Mark T. Conner
Keyword(s):  
Task Switching ◽  
Mixing Costs ◽  
And Task

Modulation of Executive Control in the Task Switching Paradigm With Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS)

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 55-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tilo Strobach ◽  
Daria Antonenko ◽  
Tamara Schindler ◽  
Agnes Flöel ◽  
Torsten Schubert
Keyword(s):  
Task Switching ◽  
Direct Current ◽  
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Direct Current Stimulation ◽  
Performance Effects ◽  
Within Subjects ◽  
Mixing Costs ◽  
Task Experience ◽  
And Task

Abstract. Executive processing in the task switching paradigm is primarily associated with activation of the lateral prefrontal cortex (lPFC), demonstrated in numerous functional imaging studies (e.g., Brass & von Cramon, 2002 ). However, there are only very few attempts to modulate neural activation related with executive functions and to investigate the effects of this modulation on the performance in this paradigm. To modulate lPFC activity here, we used the non-invasive transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS; atDCS [1 mA, 20 min] vs. ctDCS [1 mA, 20 min] vs. sham stimulation [1 mA, 30 s]) over the left inferior frontal junction under conditions of single tasks, task repetitions, and task switches in the task switching paradigm. We assessed the performance effects of online tDCS on mixing costs (single tasks vs. task repetitions) as well as on switching costs (task repetitions vs. task switches). In a within-subjects design across three sessions, there was no evidence of stimulation on the magnitude of these cost types. However, when taking a between-subjects perspective in the first session (i.e., after excluding dominant effects of task experience), atDCS showed an increase in mixing costs in contrast to ctDCS and sham. We interpreted this finding in the context of task switching theories on task activation and task inhibition and their neural localizations.

Age Differences in Memory-Based Task Switching With and Without Cues

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 187-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergei A. Schapkin ◽  
Patrick D. Gajewski ◽  
Gabriele Freude
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Task Switching ◽  
Response Selection ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Switch Costs ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Mixing Costs ◽  
And Task

The study investigated the neuronal mechanisms of age-related changes in mixing costs during memory-based task switching with two levels of working memory (WM) load. Forty-eight healthy younger and 45 healthy older participants performed a memory based (high WM load) and a memory plus cue based (low WM load) switching task while event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were registered. Older adults revealed larger mixing costs in both reaction time (RT) and accuracy at higher WM loads than younger adults. The presence of explicit cues substantially reduced age differences in mixing costs for accuracy but not for RT. Similarly, no age differences regarding local switch costs were found at lower WM load. Surprisingly, larger RT local costs in younger adults than in older adults were found in the memory-based block. The CNV was reduced under high WM load and positively correlated with accuracy mixing costs in older adults. The target-locked occipital N1 and fronto-central P2 were larger in older adults relative to younger adults irrespective of WM load. The P2 latency reflected the pattern of switch costs observed in behavioral data. Moreover, P2 latency positively correlated with RT mixing costs in older adults. Elderly also showed a delayed N2 and a delayed and reduced P3b. The results suggest that age-related differences in mixing costs may be partially due to a less efficient task preparation and task set maintenance (CNV) in elderly. However, elderly attempted to compensate for these deficits by permanent activation of mechanisms relating to stimulus encoding (N1) and task-set retrieval (P2). Finally, the delayed fronto-central N2 as well as the delayed and reduced parietal P3b strongly suggest delays of response selection and working memory updating in elderly due to an increase in selection threshold or in response selection variability constituting the performance decline.

The Flip Side of the Auditory Spatial Selection Benefit

2015 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-74 ◽  
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.

Congruency of cue and task transitions in task switching

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Vandierendonck ◽  
B. Liefooghe
Keyword(s):  
Task Switching ◽  
And Task

scholarly journals No-go trials in task switching: effects on the task-set and task-space level

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliane Scheil ◽  
Thomas Kleinsorge
Keyword(s):  
Task Switching ◽  
The Other ◽  
Specific Task ◽  
Task Space ◽  
Response Level ◽  
Task Set ◽  
Common Marker ◽  
Task Sets ◽  
And Task

AbstractA common marker for inhibition processes in task switching are n − 2 repetition costs. The present study aimed at elucidating effects of no-go trials on n − 2 repetition costs. In contrast to the previous studies, no-go trials were associated with only one of the three tasks in the present two experiments. High n − 2 repetition costs occurred if the no-go task had to be executed in trial n − 2, irrespective of whether a response had to be withheld or not. In contrast, no n − 2 repetition costs were visible if the other two tasks were relevant in n − 2. Whereas this n − 2 effect was unaffected by whether participants could reliably exclude a no-go trial or not, effects of no-gos in trial n were determined by this knowledge. The results differ from effects of no-go trials that are not bound to a specific task. It is assumed that the present no-go variation exerted its effect not on the response level, but on the level of task sets, resulting in enhanced salience of the no-go task that leads to higher activation and, as a consequence, to stronger inhibition. The dissociation of the effects on no-gos in trials n − 2 and n as a function of foreknowledge suggests that the balance between activation and inhibition is shifted not only for single trials and tasks, but for the whole task space.

Current Task Activation Predicts General Effects of Advance Preparation in Task Switching

2006 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 260-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edita Poljac ◽  
Ab de Haan ◽  
Gerard P. van Galen
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Task Switching ◽  
Shape Matching ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Matching Task ◽  
Task Switch ◽  
Current Task ◽  
Within Subjects ◽  
And Task

Two experiments investigated the way that beforehand preparation influences general task execution in reaction-time matching tasks. Response times (RTs) and error rates were measured for switching and nonswitching conditions in a color- and shape-matching task. The task blocks could repeat (task repetition) or alternate (task switch), and the preparation interval (PI) was manipulated within-subjects (Experiment 1) and between-subjects (Experiment 2). The study illustrated a comparable general task performance after a long PI for both experiments, within and between PI manipulations. After a short PI, however, the general task performance increased significantly for the between-subjects manipulation of the PI. Furthermore, both experiments demonstrated an analogous preparation effect for both task switching and task repetitions. Next, a consistent switch cost throughout the whole run of trials and a within-run slowing effect were observed in both experiments. Altogether, the present study implies that the effects of the advance preparation go beyond the first trials and confirms different points of the activation approach ( Altmann, 2002) to task switching.

Antisaccades and task-switching: interactions in controlled processing

2002 ◽  
Vol 144 (4) ◽  
pp. 528-537 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariya V. Cherkasova ◽  
Dara S. Manoach ◽  
James M. Intriligator ◽  
Jason J. S. Barton
Keyword(s):  
Task Switching ◽  
Controlled Processing ◽  
And Task
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