Department of Psychology, University of Essex.
School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen.
J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2024 Oct;50(10):1579-1591. doi: 10.1037/xlm0001383.
The task-switch cost is one of the most robust phenomena in human task performance, but it can disappear after nogo trials where the actors decide not to respond to the target. According to the response-selection account, it is the occurrence of response selection that generates a task-switch cost on the subsequent trial, and the absence of a switch cost after nogo trials has been attributed to a nonoccurrence of response selection on nogo trials. However, an alternative account is that a task-switch cost is generated but is abolished on nogo trials because of the interference from the nogo signal with the activated task set, suggesting that the absence of a task-switch cost does not necessarily imply the nonoccurrence of response selection. The present study tested these competing accounts by using selective go/nogo procedures for which withholding a response would require selecting a response and inhibiting the selected response. Bayes factors in five experiments provided evidence for the absence of a task-switch cost after selective nogo trials, indicating that the occurrence of response selection does not necessarily result in a task-switch cost on the subsequent trial. The present results are consistent with the task-set interference account that a task-switch cost could be generated on nogo trials but is abolished because a nogo signal interferes with the activated task-set. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
任务转换代价是人类任务表现中最稳定的现象之一，但在被试决定不对目标做出反应的“不反应”试验中，它可能会消失。根据反应选择理论，正是反应选择的发生在随后的试验中产生了任务转换代价，而在“不反应”试验后没有转换代价是归因于在“不反应”试验中没有发生反应选择。然而，另一种解释是，尽管产生了任务转换代价，但由于“不反应”信号与激活的任务集之间的干扰，它在“不反应”试验中被消除了，这表明没有任务转换代价并不一定意味着没有发生反应选择。本研究通过使用选择性“反应”/“不反应”程序来检验这些相互竞争的理论，在这些程序中，不反应需要选择一个反应，并抑制所选反应。在五个实验中，贝叶斯因子为选择性“不反应”试验后不存在任务转换代价提供了证据，表明反应选择的发生不一定会导致随后试验中的任务转换代价。本研究结果与任务集干扰理论一致，即在“不反应”试验中可以产生任务转换代价，但由于“不反应”信号干扰了激活的任务集，该代价被消除。
