Increasing the difficulty of response selection does not increase the switch cost.
Several theories of task switching assume that basic task processes such as stimulus identification and response selection do not contribute to task-switch costs. This conclusion is mainly based on the finding that stimulus-identification manipulations have no influence on the size of the switch cost. The present study tested the influence of response-selection manipulations on the size of the switch cost. The authors manipulated the difficulty of response selection by using a semantically based response-side effect that is associated with numerical-judgement tasks, namely the Spatial Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) effect. The authors observed a SNARC effect and a switch cost, but no interaction between the two: the task-switch cost did not differ between SNARC-compatible and -incompatible responses. The authors conclude that response selection does not contribute to the switch cost on the current trial, which provides further support for the idea that basic task processes and task-switch processes are separate.
Liefooghe
Baptist
B
Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. baptist.liefooghe@ugent.be
Verbruggen
Frederick
F
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008433:Mathematics; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology