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Updated: Oct 11, 2026

Measuring the Switch Cost of Smartphone Use While Walking
Published on: April 30, 2020
Component processes in task switching
1Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel. nmeiran@bgumail.bgu.ac.il
Abstract:
Participants switched between two randomly ordered, two-choice reaction-time (RT) tasks, where an instructional cue preceded the target stimulus and indicated which task to execute. Task-switching cost dissipated passively while the participants waited for the instructional cue in order to know which task to execute (during the Response-Cue Interval). Switching cost was sharply reduced, but not abolished, when the participants actively prepared for the task switch in response to the instructional cue (during the Cue-Target Interval). The preparation for a task switch has shown not to be a by-product of general preparation by phasic alertness or predicting target onset. It is suggested that task-switching cost has at least three components reflecting (1) the passive dissipation of the previous task set, (2) the preparation of the new task set, and (3) a residual component.
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