The effect of hierarchical task representations on task selection in voluntary task switching

The current study explored the potential for hierarchical representations to influence action selection during voluntary task switching. Participants switched between 4 individual task elements. In Experiment 1, participants were encouraged to represent the task elements as grouped within a hierarchy based on experimental manipulations of varying complexity. Manipulations implemented only during the practice phase of the experiment failed to influence action selection; however, manipulations that persisted throughout the experiment influenced action selection in a manner suggestive of a hierarchical task representation. Experiment 2 demonstrated that, once established, the influences of hierarchical representations appear to persist, regardless of whether they are required. The results suggest that hierarchical representations may play a functional role of goal shielding in action selection.