Masson Michael E J, Carruthers Sarah
a Department of Psychology , University of Victoria , Victoria , BC , Canada.
Q J Exp Psychol (Hove). 2014 Oct;67(10):1944-58. doi: 10.1080/17470218.2013.879390. Epub 2014 Mar 5.
Explicitly cued task switching slows performance relative to performing the same task on consecutive trials. This effect appears to be due partly to more efficient encoding of the task cue when the same cue is used on consecutive trials and partly to an additional task-switching process. These components were examined by comparing explicitly cued and voluntary task switching groups, with external cues presented to both groups. Cue-switch effects varied in predictable ways to dissociate explicitly cued and voluntary task switching, whereas task-switch effects had similar characteristics for both instructional groups. The data were well fitted by a mathematical model of task switching that included a cue-encoding mechanism (whereby cue repetition improves performance) and an additional process that was invoked on task-switch trials. Analyses of response-time distributions suggest that this additional process involves task-set reconfiguration that may or may not be engaged before the target stimulus is presented.
与在连续试验中执行相同任务相比，明确提示的任务切换会降低表现。这种效应似乎部分归因于当在连续试验中使用相同提示时任务提示的编码更有效，部分归因于额外的任务切换过程。通过比较明确提示组和自主任务切换组来检验这些成分，向两组都呈现外部提示。提示切换效应以可预测的方式变化，以区分明确提示的任务切换和自主任务切换，而任务切换效应在两个指导组中具有相似的特征。数据很好地拟合了一个任务切换的数学模型，该模型包括一个提示编码机制（据此提示重复可提高表现）和一个在任务切换试验中调用的额外过程。对反应时间分布的分析表明，这个额外过程涉及任务集重新配置，这可能在目标刺激呈现之前进行，也可能不进行。
