The dual implication of dual affordance: stimulus-task binding and attentional focus changing during task preparation

In task switching experiments, comparing performance with bivalent stimuli (affording both tasks) to univalent stimuli (affording one task) confounds the need to change focus between dimensions and stimulus-task binding, because bivalent stimuli require focusing (and refocusing) but also appeared in the competing task before. To separate these influences, participants switched between vertical and horizontal judgments performed on bivalent (e.g., up-left) or univalent (e.g., left) actual locations or location words. In a critical condition involving bivalence without stimulus-task binding, actual locations and location words were each linked to a different task. Bivalence increased switch costs and preparation reduced switch costs only with bivalent stimuli. Stimulus-task binding affected performance in task repetitions, especially when little preparation time was afforded.