Citation

Gade M, Koch I. Acta Psychol. 2014; 148C: 12-18.

Affiliation

RWTH Aachen University, Institute of Psychology, Germany.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.actpsy.2013.12.009

PMID

24486802

Abstract

The present study investigates the influence of preparation on inhibitory effects in cued task switching. In three experiments, we assessed n-2 repetition costs as marker of inhibition of the just executed and now irrelevant task by comparing performance in task sequences such as ABA (i.e., n-2 repetitions, with A, B and C standing for different tasks) to task sequences such as CBA (i.e., n-2 switches). Specifically, we varied the cue-target interval (CTI) to examine cue-based preparation effects. In addition, we manipulated cue type (i.e., abstract, verbal, and direct cues) across the three experiments. We obtained significant reductions of n-2 repetition costs with prolonged CTI when using abstract cues (i.e., coloured frames) and task names (i.e., digit), but not when using the task-specific stimulus-response mapping as cue for the upcoming task. These data suggest that cue-based preparation is not a uniform process but depends on the information provided by the cue.

Language: en