Response Selection Difficulty and Asymmetrical Costs of Switching Between Tasks and Stimuli: No Evidence for an Exogenous Component of Task-Set Reconfiguration

Four task-switching experiments examined the notion of an exogenous component of task-set reconfiguration (i.e., a process needed to shift task set that is not initiated in the absence of a task-associated stimulus). The authors varied the complexity and familiarity of stimulus-response (SR) mapping...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance 2004-12, Vol.30 (6), p.1043-1063
Main Authors: Hübner, Mike, Kluwe, Rainer H, Luna-Rodriguez, Aquiles, Peters, Alexandra
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activity levels. Psychomotricity
Adult
Attention
Attention Control
Biological and medical sciences
Cognition
Cognitive Processes
Discrimination Learning
Exploratory Behavior
Familiarity
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Miscellaneous
Perceptions
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Reaction Time
Responses
Stimuli
Stimulus Frequency
Stimulus Presentation Methods
Task Analysis
Task Complexity
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Summary:Four task-switching experiments examined the notion of an exogenous component of task-set reconfiguration (i.e., a process needed to shift task set that is not initiated in the absence of a task-associated stimulus). The authors varied the complexity and familiarity of stimulus-response (SR) mapping rules to produce differentially time-consuming reconfiguration demands. Tasks with more complex or less familiar rules did not display increased switch costs, given that stimulus repetitions were excluded from the analysis. These results do not support the idea of exogenous reconfiguration. Moreover, stimulus repetitions inflated task-switch costs and did so disproportionately for tasks with increased response selection difficulty, thereby demonstrating that insufficient control of the sequence of stimuli may yield results that mimic those predicted by exogenous reconfiguration accounts.
ISSN:0096-1523
1939-1277
DOI:10.1037/0096-1523.30.6.1043