An Integrated Model of Cognitive Control in Task Switching

A model of cognitive control in task switching is developed in which controlled performance depends on the system maintaining access to a code in episodic memory representing the most recently cued task. The main constraint on access to the current task code is proactive interference from old task c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological review 2008-07, Vol.115 (3), p.602-639
Main Authors: Altmann, Erik M, Gray, Wayne D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attention
Attention Control
Biological and medical sciences
Cognition
Cognition & reasoning
Cognition. Intelligence
Cognitive Ability
Cognitive Processes
Cognitive psychology
Cues
Episodic Memory
Error correction models
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Human behaviour
Humans
Memory
Metaphor
Miscellaneous
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Simulation
Task Analysis
Task Switching
Visual task performance
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Summary:A model of cognitive control in task switching is developed in which controlled performance depends on the system maintaining access to a code in episodic memory representing the most recently cued task. The main constraint on access to the current task code is proactive interference from old task codes. This interference and the mechanisms that contend with it reproduce a wide range of behavioral phenomena when simulated, including well-known task-switching effects, such as latency and error switch costs, and effects on which other theories are silent, such as with-run slowing and within-run error increase. The model generalizes across multiple task-switching procedures, suggesting that episodic task codes play an important role in keeping the cognitive system focused under a variety of performance constraints.
ISSN:0033-295X
1939-1471
DOI:10.1037/0033-295X.115.3.602