The Instructed Task-Switch Evaluation Effect: Is the Instruction to Switch Tasks Sufficient to Dislike Task Switch...

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Human Decision Making
• Task Switching Research

Background:

• Resolving cognitive conflict during task switching is effortful, leading to potential negative biases.
• Previous research indicated negative evaluations of cues signaling task switches compared to task repetitions.
• The current study investigates if this evaluative bias extends to mere instructional cues without actual task performance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if evaluative biases favoring task repetition over task switching can be induced by instructions alone.
• To examine the influence of prior task experience on the evaluative bias towards instructed task cues.

Main Methods:

• Three experiments were conducted using a task switching paradigm.
• Participants received instructions about non-word cues signaling either task switching or task repetition for a non-administered block.
• Evaluations (explicit and implicit) of these instructed cues were measured, with Experiment 2 and 3 incorporating prior task experience.

Main Results:

• Experiment 1 found no significant difference in evaluations of instructed task switch versus repetition cues.
• Experiment 2 revealed a preference for both instructed and experienced task repetition cues in explicit, but not implicit, evaluations.
• Experiment 3 replicated the explicit evaluation effect and extended it to implicit evaluations when prior task experience was present.

Conclusions:

• Evaluative biases favoring task repetition can emerge from mere instructions, particularly when coupled with prior task experience.
• Both instructed and experienced task repetition cues are evaluated more positively explicitly, suggesting a learned preference.
• The findings contribute to understanding cognitive control effort and the formation of evaluative biases in task management.