Task-switching costs, Stroop-costs, and executive control: a correlational study

Three correlational studies investigated the relationship between the time costs associated with Stroop stimuli (Stroop-costs) with the time costs associated with task-switching (switch-costs) obtained from colour-word stimuli and digit stimuli. In all studies, large and significant positive correlations were found between different measures of switch-costs. However, only small (and sometimes non-significant) correlations were obtained between the different measures of Stroop-costs and between measures of Stroop-costs and measures of switch-costs. The results are taken as evidence for the existence of some common or shared specialized mechanisms involved in task-switching, which are different from those used to overcome Stroop interference.