When task sharing reduces interference: evidence for division-of-labour in Stroop-like tasks

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Social Cognition
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Task performance can be affected by irrelevant information.
• Social context, like performing tasks with others, influences cognitive processes.
• The picture-word interference (PWI) task is a common paradigm to study interference.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how task sharing affects interference from task-irrelevant information.
• To identify critical task features that modulate interference in a joint task.
• To understand the cognitive mechanisms behind reduced interference in collaborative settings.

Main Methods:

• Three experiments using a joint Stroop-like picture-word interference (PWI) task.
• Participants performed the PWI task individually and then with a co-actor.
• The co-actor's perceived role (managing distractors vs. managing pictures) was manipulated.

Main Results:

• Believing a co-actor managed distractor words suppressed semantic interference.
• Interference persisted when the co-actor was perceived to perform the same task.
• Case-alternated distractor words (e.g., "mOuSe") were particularly affected by the division of labor.

Conclusions:

• A perceived division of labor can mitigate interference from task-irrelevant information.
• Sharing a task with someone managing distractions allows for better filtering.
• Cognitive strategies to oppose interference emerge when task roles are clearly defined.