Automatized task-set reconfiguration: Mechanisms underlying practice-related improvement in task-switching performance

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Tilo Strobach
• Subject Area: General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 531401734

Complex task situations are often characterized by the need to process several different tasks. Requirements of processing several tasks produce performance costs compared to single-task situations in which individuals perform one task exclusively. Among other research lines, the emerging performance costs are precisely investigated in task-switching research with two tasks presented in consecutive trials. This research has shown that performance costs are evident under unpracticed conditions while practice can extremely reduce these costs and thus improve task-switching performance. However, knowledge about specific cognitive mechanisms related to improved switching performance at the end of practice is marginal. The present project proposal aims to fill this gap in the literature since the understanding of these practice-related mechanisms provides an insight into the characteristics of the plasticity of the human cognitive system. We particularly do so by asking (1) whether practice of task switching with the task cueing paradigm results in automatic task-set reconfiguration processes elicited by the task cue and (2) whether the practice gain in task-switching performance is specific regarding specific (practiced) task transitions.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Mike Wendt