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Related Experiment Videos

Bivalency is costly: bivalent stimuli elicit cautious responding.

Todd S Woodward1, Beat Meier, Christine Tipper

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. twoodward@cortex.psych.ubc.ca

Experimental Psychology
|November 1, 2003
PubMed
Summary

Encountering bivalent stimuli, which have features relevant to multiple tasks, slows down task switching. This slowing is linked to a more cautious response style, reducing errors during task performance.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience

Background:

  • Task switching involves cognitive flexibility.
  • Bivalent stimuli, relevant to multiple tasks, can impede performance.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the source of the 'bivalency cost' in task switching.
  • To determine if bivalent stimuli induce a more cautious response style.

Main Methods:

  • Participants performed three simple tasks in alternation.
  • Bivalent stimuli were occasionally introduced within one task.
  • Response times and error rates were analyzed.

Main Results:

  • Bivalent stimuli introduction slowed responding across all tasks.
  • A decrease in response errors accompanied the slowing.

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  • This effect occurred regardless of feature overlap between tasks.

    • Conclusions:

    • Bivalent stimuli appear to trigger a more cautious approach to task switching.
    • This cautiousness may explain the observed slowing and error reduction.