Exploring task switch costs in a color-shape decision task via a mouse tracking paradigm

Several decades of cognitive research have explored the processes and mechanisms that underlie task switching. Here we report an experiment in which young adult participants were presented with colored shapes, and were randomly cued to categorize them according to color, or to shape. Responses were made via dynamic movements of the computer mouse ("mouse tracking"), which allows insight into how decision making unfolds. The results showed that a range of classic findings (mix cost, switch cost, task congruency effects, etc.) emerged strongly in movement trajectories. Initiation of movements was sensitive to task/cue driven but not to stimulus/response driven variables, as well as to task switching. This constellation suggests that task switch costs emerge as a combination of task set reconfiguration, and stimulus-driven sensory-motor mappings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).