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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 15, 2026

Measuring the Switch Cost of Smartphone Use While Walking

Measuring the Switch Cost of Smartphone Use While Walking

Published on: April 30, 2020

Strategy switch costs in arithmetic problem solving.

Patrick Lemaire¹, Mireille Lecacheur

¹CNRS and Université de Provence, Marseille, France. patrick.lemaire@univ-provence.fr

Memory & Cognition

|March 18, 2010

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Switching cognitive strategies incurs a performance cost. Participants solving multiplication problems made more errors when switching strategies between trials, indicating a measurable "strategy switch cost".

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Working Memory Training for Older Participants: A Control Group Training Regimen and Initial Intellectual Functioning Assessment

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Published on: September 20, 2020

Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive Neuroscience
Human Performance

Background:

Individuals often employ multiple strategies to solve problems.
Understanding the cognitive processes involved in strategy selection and execution is crucial for cognitive modeling.
The existence and nature of costs associated with switching between cognitive strategies remain an active area of research.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the presence and magnitude of strategy switch costs in a problem-solving task.
To determine if participants avoid switching strategies and if this avoidance is influenced by task difficulty or strategy efficiency.
To explore the implications of strategy switch costs for computational models of strategy choice.

Main Methods:

Three experiments were conducted using two-digit multiplication problems requiring approximate solutions.
Participants were either instructed on which strategy to use or allowed to choose their strategy.
Performance metrics, including accuracy and strategy usage patterns over consecutive trials, were recorded.

Main Results:

Participants demonstrated poorer performance (higher error rates) when switching between different strategies on consecutive trials compared to using the same strategy.
Participants showed a tendency to repeat strategies, using the same strategy on two consecutive problems more often than switching.
Strategy switch costs were observed even when participants used the easiest strategy or solved relatively easy problems.

Conclusions:

A significant cognitive cost, termed strategy switch cost, is associated with changing problem-solving strategies.
This cost influences strategy selection, leading to a preference for strategy repetition.
The findings provide valuable insights into the dynamics of strategy selection and have implications for refining computational models of human cognition.