In cognitive psychology, numerous studies examined the effects of reward on task-switching behavior (e.g. Fröber & Dreisbach, 2016b, 2021; Fröber et al., 2018, 2019; Jurczyk et al., 2019, Kleinsorge & Rinkenauer, 2012). Usually reward was given contingent on performance, i.e., it was only granted when responses have been correct and fast. Non-contingent reward is often neglected, and only a few studies have focused on its effect on cognitive processes (e.g. van Steenbergen et al., 2009, 2012; or Fröber & Dreisbach, 2014, 2016a). Results in these studies diverge probably due to differential effects on specific processes and we thus consider it important to look into this topic in more detail.

In the current experiment, we investigate the effects of non-contingent reward on task selection and task performance in a self-organized task-switching experiment where participants choose between a number and a letter task. With each consecutive task repetition, the waiting time for the stimulus for the task repetition increases. Importantly, participants balance switch related (switch costs) and repetition related (waiting time) temporal costs deciding for task switching when switch cost and waiting time are quite similar (Mittelstädt et al., 2018). We compare task switch rates, switch costs and the balance of temporal costs - depending on whether a non-contingent reward or no reward was provided in the previous trial. We conjecture that the impact of non-contingent reward might differ for participants, therefore we add "subject" as a second-level factor in the linear mixed models, with which we plan to analyze the data.