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Related Experiment Videos

The effects of recent practice on task switching.

Nick Yeung1, Stephen Monsell

  • 1U Cambridge, Dept of Psychology, Cambridge, England. nyeung@princeton.edu

Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance
|October 31, 2003
PubMed
Summary

Recent practice increases task switching costs due to task-set inertia, but this effect can be overcome with active preparation. This suggests endogenous control can mitigate practice-related task switching difficulties.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Neuroscience

Background:

  • Task switching involves cognitive flexibility, allowing individuals to shift between different tasks.
  • Task-set inertia, the tendency to maintain the current task set, can influence switching costs.
  • Previous research has explored factors affecting task switching, but the role of recent selective practice requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the impact of recent selective practice on the cost of switching between two tasks: alphabet arithmetic and shape comparison.
  • To determine if task-set inertia contributes to switching costs and under what conditions.
  • To examine the role of endogenous task-set preparation in mitigating practice-related switching costs.

Main Methods:

Related Experiment Videos

  • Four experiments were conducted using letter-digit pairs to elicit alphabet arithmetic and shape comparison tasks.
  • Participants performed tasks under conditions varying recent practice and preparation for task switches.
  • Switching costs were measured by comparing performance on switch trials versus repeat trials.

    • Main Results:

    • Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated that switching to a more recently practiced task incurred greater costs, supporting the role of task-set inertia.
    • Experiment 3 revealed this inertia effect was specific to trials where a recently trained stimulus followed another, challenging existing task-set priming theories.
    • Experiment 4 showed that active preparation for a task switch eliminated the effects of recent practice, indicating endogenous control can overcome inertia.

    Conclusions:

    • Recent selective practice contributes to task switching costs through task-set inertia.
    • Task-set inertia is influenced by stimulus history and may not be fully explained by current priming theories.
    • Endogenous task-set preparation is an effective strategy for reducing the impact of task-set inertia and improving task switching performance.