Task Uncertainty Can Account for Mixing and Switch Costs in Task-Switching
Cognitive control is required in situations that involve uncertainty or change, such as when resolving conflict, selecting responses and switching tasks. Recently, it has been suggested that cognitive control can be conceptualised as a mechanism which prioritises goal-relevant information to deal wi...
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| Format: | Online |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science
2015
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| Online Access: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4480360/ |
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pubmed-4480360 |
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pubmed-44803602015-06-29 Task Uncertainty Can Account for Mixing and Switch Costs in Task-Switching Cooper, Patrick S. Garrett, Paul M. Rennie, Jaime L. Karayanidis, Frini Research Article Cognitive control is required in situations that involve uncertainty or change, such as when resolving conflict, selecting responses and switching tasks. Recently, it has been suggested that cognitive control can be conceptualised as a mechanism which prioritises goal-relevant information to deal with uncertainty. This hypothesis has been supported using a paradigm that requires conflict resolution. In this study, we examine whether cognitive control during task switching is also consistent with this notion. We used information theory to quantify the level of uncertainty in different trial types during a cued task-switching paradigm. We test the hypothesis that differences in uncertainty between task repeat and task switch trials can account for typical behavioural effects in task-switching. Increasing uncertainty was associated with less efficient performance (i.e., slower and less accurate), particularly on switch trials and trials that afford little opportunity for advance preparation. Interestingly, both mixing and switch costs were associated with a common episodic control process. These results support the notion that cognitive control may be conceptualised as an information processor that serves to resolve uncertainty in the environment. Public Library of Science 2015-06-24 /pmc/articles/PMC4480360/ /pubmed/26107646 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0131556 Text en © 2015 Cooper et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
| repository_type |
Open Access Journal |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
US National Center for Biotechnology Information |
| building |
NCBI PubMed |
| collection |
Online Access |
| language |
English |
| format |
Online |
| author |
Cooper, Patrick S. Garrett, Paul M. Rennie, Jaime L. Karayanidis, Frini |
| spellingShingle |
Cooper, Patrick S. Garrett, Paul M. Rennie, Jaime L. Karayanidis, Frini Task Uncertainty Can Account for Mixing and Switch Costs in Task-Switching |
| author_facet |
Cooper, Patrick S. Garrett, Paul M. Rennie, Jaime L. Karayanidis, Frini |
| author_sort |
Cooper, Patrick S. |
| title |
Task Uncertainty Can Account for Mixing and Switch Costs in Task-Switching |
| title_short |
Task Uncertainty Can Account for Mixing and Switch Costs in Task-Switching |
| title_full |
Task Uncertainty Can Account for Mixing and Switch Costs in Task-Switching |
| title_fullStr |
Task Uncertainty Can Account for Mixing and Switch Costs in Task-Switching |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Task Uncertainty Can Account for Mixing and Switch Costs in Task-Switching |
| title_sort |
task uncertainty can account for mixing and switch costs in task-switching |
| description |
Cognitive control is required in situations that involve uncertainty or change, such as when resolving conflict, selecting responses and switching tasks. Recently, it has been suggested that cognitive control can be conceptualised as a mechanism which prioritises goal-relevant information to deal with uncertainty. This hypothesis has been supported using a paradigm that requires conflict resolution. In this study, we examine whether cognitive control during task switching is also consistent with this notion. We used information theory to quantify the level of uncertainty in different trial types during a cued task-switching paradigm. We test the hypothesis that differences in uncertainty between task repeat and task switch trials can account for typical behavioural effects in task-switching. Increasing uncertainty was associated with less efficient performance (i.e., slower and less accurate), particularly on switch trials and trials that afford little opportunity for advance preparation. Interestingly, both mixing and switch costs were associated with a common episodic control process. These results support the notion that cognitive control may be conceptualised as an information processor that serves to resolve uncertainty in the environment. |
| publisher |
Public Library of Science |
| publishDate |
2015 |
| url |
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4480360/ |
| _version_ |
1613240084580007936 |