scholarly journals The effect of stimulus availability on task choice in voluntary task switching

2008 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 991-997 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. M. ARRINGTON
Keyword(s):  
Task Switching ◽  
Voluntary Task Switching ◽  
Task Choice

Increasing reward prospect promotes cognitive flexibility: Direct evidence from voluntary task switching with double registration

2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (8) ◽  
pp. 1926-1944 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerstin Fröber ◽  
Roland Pfister ◽  
Gesine Dreisbach
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Task Switching ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Task Execution ◽  
Contingent Reward ◽  
Voluntary Task Switching ◽  
Task Choice ◽  
Registration Procedure ◽  
Cognitive Stability ◽  
High Reward

Recent research has suggested that sequential changes in the prospect of performance-contingent rewards may influence the balance between cognitive flexibility and stability: whereas constant high reward prospect seems to promote cognitive stability, increasing reward prospect has been shown to promote flexible behaviour in voluntary task-switching paradigms. Previous studies, however, confounded cognitive flexibility regarding voluntary task choices with control processes during task execution. We present five experiments to dissociate these two processes by means of a double registration procedure, in which task choice is registered prior to task execution. The data yielded clear evidence for reward-driven modulation of the flexibility-stability balance already at the level of task choices, with higher voluntary switch rates when reward prospect increased compared with situations in which reward prospect remained high. This effect was further modulated by the specific type of registration procedure, suggesting that only deliberate task choices are affected by the reward sequence. These results thus confirm that the prospect of performance-contingent reward can indeed promote either cognitive stability or flexibility depending on the immediate reward history.

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