Task-order Coordination in Triple-Task Situations: An EEG study
Wed—Casino_1.801—Poster3—8401
Presented by: Torsten Schubert
Performing multiple tasks simultaneously requires task-order coordination processes for planning, organizing, and monitoring the sequence of tasks. In laboratory settings, these processes are typically studied using dual-task (DT) paradigms with a variable order of the two component tasks. A common finding that indicates the occurrence of task-order coordination is that performance tends to be impaired in order-switch trials (when the task order changes between two consecutive trials) compared to order-repetition trials (when the task order remains the same). So far, task-order coordination has only been studied in DT situations. Thus, it remains unknown whether such processes are also necessary when handling more than two tasks. To tackle this issue, we investigated the electrophysiological correlates of order coordination in a new triple-task scenario. In two experiments, we used a triple task consisting of two visual and one auditory choice reaction time tasks, presented in a variable order. In Experiment 1, we found a parietal order-switching positivity when contrasting order-switch with order-repetition trials. In addition to this order-switching positivity, in Experiment 2, we also found a slightly earlier centroparietal order-mixing positivity when comparing order-repetition trials with trials from triple-task blocks with a constant task order. These results provide physiological evidence for the assumption that task-order coordination processes are also involved in the processing of more than two tasks.
Keywords: dual task, triple task, task-order coordination, executive functions, cognitive control