Gade Miriam, Koch Iring
University of Zurich, Institute of Psychology, General Psychology, Cognition, Switzerland.
RWTH Aachen University, Institute of Psychology, Germany.
Acta Psychol (Amst). 2014 May;148:12-8. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2013.12.009. Epub 2014 Jan 29.
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.
本研究调查了准备状态对线索提示任务切换中抑制效应的影响。在三个实验中，我们通过比较ABA（即n - 2次重复，其中A、B和C代表不同任务）等任务序列与CBA（即n - 2次切换）等任务序列的表现，评估了n - 2重复代价，将其作为对刚刚执行且现在无关任务的抑制的指标。具体而言，我们改变线索-目标间隔（CTI）以检验基于线索的准备效应。此外，我们在三个实验中操纵了线索类型（即抽象线索、言语线索和直接线索）。当使用抽象线索（即彩色框架）和任务名称（即数字）时，随着CTI延长，我们观察到n - 2重复代价显著降低，但当使用特定任务的刺激-反应映射作为即将到来任务的线索时，情况并非如此。这些数据表明，基于线索的准备不是一个统一的过程，而是取决于线索提供的信息。
