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Repetition priming in task switching: do the benefits dissipate?
1Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA. ema@msu.edu
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
|October 21, 2005
Summary
Repetition priming may not decrease over time as thought, challenging its role in task-switching costs. This challenges the idea that priming dissipation explains why switch costs lessen with longer response-cue intervals (RCI).
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Human Behavior
Background:
- Task-switching research investigates cognitive control and executive functions.
- Switch cost, the performance decrement in task switching, is a key metric.
- Repetition priming, the facilitation of processing due to recent exposure, is a proposed contributor to switch cost.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the claim that repetition priming dissipates over the response-cue interval (RCI).
- To determine if priming dissipation explains the reduction in switch cost with increased RCI.
- To investigate the influence of experimental design on the RCI effect.
Main Methods:
- Four experiments were conducted manipulating the response-cue interval (RCI).
- Experiments 1 and 2 used a within-participants design for RCI.
- Experiments 3 and 4 employed a between-participants design for RCI.
Main Results:
- Within-participants RCI manipulation replicated the standard effect of decreased switch cost with longer RCIs.
- Between-participants RCI manipulation showed no effect on switch cost.
- Mixed effects on switch and repeat trials in Experiments 1 and 2 were observed.
Conclusions:
- The RCI effect on switch cost is not attributable to passive processes like priming dissipation.
- Experimental design significantly influences the observed RCI effect.
- Repetition priming may be more temporally stable than previously assumed, but its role in switch cost requires further investigation.