No reduction of between-task interference in a dual-task with a repeating sequence of SOAs

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Human Performance
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Dual-tasking often results in backward crosstalk effects (BCE), where Task 2 interferes with Task 1 responses.
• BCE is influenced by strategic control, instructions, context, conflict experience, and motivation.
• Short stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) amplifies between-task interference, but specific stimuli can reduce BCE.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if a regular sequence of SOAs can be used for contextual regulation of BCE.
• To determine if participants implicitly learn SOA sequences to shield against between-task interference.

Main Methods:

• Two experiments used a dual-task paradigm with spatially incompatible hand and foot responses.
• A repeating sequence of three SOAs was implemented within blocks.
• BCE size was measured across sequence and random blocks.

Main Results:

• The size of the backward crosstalk effect (BCE) remained constant across all blocks, regardless of SOA sequence.
• No evidence was found for participants learning the SOA sequence to reduce between-task interference.
• Bayes factors (BFs10 < 1) supported the null hypothesis for the interaction between SOA sequence and block type.

Conclusions:

• Implicit learning of SOA sequences did not modulate backward crosstalk effects in this dual-task paradigm.
• Further research is needed to identify conditions for implicit sequence learning and its potential for task shielding.
• The findings highlight the complexity of strategic control over between-task interference in dual-tasking.