09:00 - 10:30
Parallel sessions 4
09:00 - 10:30
Room: HSZ - N1
Chair/s:
Alexander Berger, Patricia Hirsch
Multitasking is a frequent part of everyday life, requiring us to switch between different tasks or engage in multiple tasks simultaneously. Such situations place high demands on cognitive control. A key aspect of this control is the regulation of task sets: internal representations that guide behavior in accordance with current task demands. Using task switching, probe task and dual-tasking methods, this symposium brings together different paradigms for investigating the flexible control of task sets, thereby integrating different perspectives on the preparation, inhibition, and adaptation of task sets. We present studies on how task sets are shaped by anticipatory processes, how they may be suppressed to reduce interference, and how control mechanisms flexibly adjust based on recent experience or contextual demands. The individual talks address a range of questions within this framework: one study investigates inhibitory processes triggered by mere task preparation; another explores how changes in cue-task mappings affect reconfiguration after practice. A third contribution examines the origins of asymmetries in task switching involving different perspectives. Extending the focus to situations involving overlapping task demands, further talks investigate the dissipation of dual-task representations and how sequential demands modulate control in dual-task settings. Together, the symposium provides an integrative perspective on the dynamic regulation of task sets and aims to advance our understanding of the cognitive mechanisms that support cognitive flexibility and efficient multitasking in complex environments.
Submission 215
Does Timing Matter? Exploring the Temporal Dynamics of Dual-Task Representations
SymposiumTalk-04
Presented by: Alice Camisa
Alice CamisaIring KochPatricia Hirsch
RWTH Aachen University, Germany
In research on cued task-switching, increasing the time interval between a response and the cue onset of the upcoming trial (response-cue interval; RCI) typically leads to reduced switch costs. This effect is usually attributed to the dissipation of the previously activated task set: longer RCIs allow more time for the previous task set to dissipate, thereby reducing interference when a new one must be activated. The present study examined whether a similar time-dependent effect occurs for task-pair sets, higher-order representations of two partially overlapping tasks in dual-task contexts. To this end, we applied the task-pair switching logic, in which each trial began with a cue indicating which of two partially overlapping task-pairs to perform and then proceeded as a psychological refractory period (PRP) trial. Task 1 remained constant across pairs (A: tone task), whereas Task 2 varied (B or C: visual tasks). We manipulated the interval between the stimuli onset of Task 1 and Task 2 (stimulus onset asynchrony; SOA), the task-pair sequence (switches, e.g., AB → AC, vs. repetitions, e.g., AB → AB), and the RCI from the response in Task 2 to the cue for the next trial (short vs. long). Data from 48 participants revealed significant effects of SOA and task-pair sequence in both tasks, with poorer performance on task-pair switches than repetitions. Crucially, task-pair switch costs in reaction times were reduced at longer RCIs, in line with the dissipation account. These findings provide new insights into the temporal dynamics underlying the control of dual-task representations.