Institute of Psychology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.
J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2010 Jul;36(4):1075-81. doi: 10.1037/a0019695.
Two experiments examined the role of compatibility of input and output (I-O) modality mappings in task switching. We define I-O modality compatibility in terms of similarity of stimulus modality and modality of response-related sensory consequences. Experiment 1 included switching between 2 compatible tasks (auditory-vocal vs. visual-manual) and between 2 incompatible tasks (auditory-manual vs. visual-vocal). The resulting switch costs were smaller in compatible tasks compared to incompatible tasks. Experiment 2 manipulated the response-stimulus interval (RSI) to examine the time course of the compatibility effect. The effect on switch costs was confirmed with short RSI, but the effect was diminished with long RSI. Together, the data suggest that task sets are modality specific. Reduced switch costs in compatible tasks may be due to special linkages between input and output modalities, whereas incompatible tasks increase cross-talk, presumably due to dissipating interference of correct and incorrect response modalities.
两项实验考察了输入和输出模态映射的兼容性在任务转换中的作用。我们根据刺激模态和与反应相关的感觉后果的模态的相似性来定义 I-O 模态兼容性。实验 1 包括在 2 个兼容任务（听觉-声音与视觉-手动）和 2 个不兼容任务（听觉-手动与视觉-声音）之间进行转换。与不兼容任务相比，在兼容任务中转换成本更小。实验 2 操纵了反应-刺激间隔（RSI）来检查兼容性效应的时间进程。短 RSI 时确认了对转换成本的影响，但长 RSI 时该影响减弱。总的来说，数据表明任务集是特定于模态的。在兼容任务中，转换成本降低可能是由于输入和输出模态之间的特殊联系，而不兼容任务则增加了串扰，可能是由于正确和错误反应模态的干扰消散。
