Separating facilitation and interference in backward crosstalk

When two speeded tasks have spatially overlapping responses, preactivated Task 2 (T2) response information influences Task 1 (T1) response selection, a phenomenon known as the backward crosstalk effect (BCE). Current models of the BCE implicitly assume that T2 response information is equally present in trials requiring compatible or incompatible responses, such that T1 performance improves when T2 requires a compatible response and deteriorates when T2 requires an incompatible response. Thus, T2 response information should have a facilitatory and an interfering effect on T1. Interestingly, this hypothesis has never been tested, and the present study (conducted between 2021 and 2023) attempts to fill this gap by using neutral trials in which T2 responses did not spatially overlap with those in T1. The results suggest that the BCE (in T1) reflects both facilitation and interference effects of comparable magnitude, thus corroborating current conceptualizations of the BCE. We also observed an unexpected pattern of effects for T2, with only an interference effect, but no facilitation effect. Additional experiments led us to conclude that the T2 result was sensitive to the specific task characteristics. Conclusions about how the crosstalk transfers from T1 to T2 when switching tasks are therefore not possible. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).