Brüning Jovita
Otto-von-Guericke Universität Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany.
Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Mem Cognit. 2025 Sep 24. doi: 10.3758/s13421-025-01780-3.
Multitasking research has shown that individuals differ in whether they prefer a more serial or a more parallel mode of task processing at the level of whole tasks. Such preferences can be identified using the task switching with preview (TSWP) paradigm. This paradigm allows, but does not require, individuals to preview the stimulus of the next task switch in a predictable task switching procedure [AAABBB...]. Although several studies have shown that some participants consistently use the preview information, it is still unclear when exactly this information is used and, thus, how parallel processing takes place. The present study is an important step in clarifying this issue. In two experiments, I investigated when exactly individuals who prefer parallel processing during task switching use a preview to prepare for the next task switch. In Experiment 1, the onset and thus the length of the preview was varied within participants. This allowed to disentangle whether parallel processing of the preview depends on the length of the preview (i.e., its likelihood increases with longer preview presentation), or occurs contingent on a single trial (i.e., is a rapid process). Strikingly, parallel processing occurred regardless of preview duration, suggesting that a short preview may be sufficient. In Experiment 2, participants received the preview in discrete steps, i.e., with the same length throughout the sequence. There was a clear peak in the use of the preview immediately before a task switch. This suggests that although individuals who prefer parallel processing are able to process information in parallel throughout a task sequence, they clearly prefer to do so just before the task switch.
多任务研究表明，在整个任务层面，个体在更倾向于串行还是并行任务处理模式上存在差异。可以使用带预览的任务切换（TSWP）范式来识别这种偏好。在可预测的任务切换程序[AAABBB...]中，该范式允许但不要求个体预览下一个任务切换的刺激。尽管多项研究表明，一些参与者始终会使用预览信息，但仍不清楚该信息具体在何时被使用，以及并行处理是如何发生的。本研究是澄清这一问题的重要一步。在两项实验中，我研究了在任务切换过程中偏好并行处理的个体究竟何时使用预览来为下一个任务切换做准备。在实验1中，预览的开始时间以及时长在参与者内部进行了变化。这使得我们能够弄清楚预览的并行处理是取决于预览的时长（即预览呈现时间越长，其可能性增加），还是取决于单个试次（即这是一个快速过程）。令人惊讶的是，无论预览时长如何，都会发生并行处理，这表明短时间的预览可能就足够了。在实验2中，参与者以离散步骤接收预览，即在整个序列中预览时长相同。在任务切换前，预览的使用出现了一个明显的峰值。这表明，尽管偏好并行处理的个体能够在整个任务序列中并行处理信息，但他们显然更倾向于在任务切换前这样做。
