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The role of response set overlap for flexibility and cognitive control in auditory multitasking
(2022)
Highlights
• We introduced a new variant of auditory task-switching.
• Motor response set overlap was varied systematically across two experiments.
• Switch costs and congruency effects were similar for manual and vocal responses.
• Switch costs were not reduced with reduced motor response set overlap.
• We dissociated effects of motor response modality from motor response set overlap.
Abstract
We developed a new variant of auditory task-switching in order to systematically investigate shifting and cognitive control in auditory task-switching and their relation to motor response overlap in a comprehensive way. In two experiments, participants classified either pitch or loudness of a simple tone as either low or high, hence, both tasks were constructed around a common underlying dimension ranging from low to high. In Experiment 1, response sets overlapped in both category and motor modality (both manual), whereas each task was related to a specific response category and motor response modality (manual vs. vocal) in Experiment 2. The data revealed reliable switch costs that were, contrary to our expectations, not reduced with reduced response set overlap. In addition, we found reliable congruency effects and their sequential modulation in both experiments with manual as well as vocal responses, and in the absence of competing motor activation (i.e., without motor response overlap). Congruency effects after auditory task switches were smaller when response sets did not overlap. Our data thus provides an important empirical generalization of known effects to auditory stimuli as well as with both manual and vocal responses. In addition, we demonstrated that reduced congruency effects after switches for non-overlapping response sets were due to the extent of overlap between different response sets in task-switching.
According to a popular stereotype, women are better at multitasking than men, but empirical evidence for gender differences in multitasking performance is mixed. Previous work has focused on specific aspects of multitasking or has not considered gender differences in abilities contributing to multitasking performance. We therefore tested gender differences (N = 96, 50% female) in sequential (i.e., task switching) and concurrent (i.e., dual tasking) multitasking, while controlling for possible gender differences in working memory, processing speed, spatial abilities, and fluid intelligence. Applying two standard experimental paradigms allowed us to test multitasking abilities across five different empirical indices (i.e., performance costs) for both reaction time (RT) and accuracy measures, respectively. Multitasking resulted in substantial performance costs across all experimental conditions without a single significant gender difference in any of these ten measures, even when controlling for gender differences in underlying cognitive abilities. Thus, our results do not confirm the widespread stereotype that women are better at multitasking than men at least in the popular sequential and concurrent multitasking settings used in the present study.
Preparing auditory task switching in a task with overlapping and non-overlapping response sets
(2023)
We used a variant of cued auditory task switching to investigate task preparation and its relation to response-set overlap. Previous studies found increased interference with overlapping response sets across tasks relative to non-overlapping motor response sets. In the present experiments, participants classified either pitch or loudness of a simple tone as low or high, hence, both tasks were constructed around common underlying integrated semantic categories ranging from low to high. Manual responses overlapped in both category and modality for both tasks in Experiment 1A, whereas each task was related to a specific response category and response modality (manual vs. vocal) in Experiment 1B. Focusing on the manual responses in both experiments, the data showed that non-overlapping response sets (Experiment 1B) resulted in a decreased congruency effect, suggesting reduced response-based crosstalk and thus better task shielding, but at the same time switch costs were increased, suggesting less efficient switching between task sets. Moreover, varying preparation time (cue-stimulus interval, CSI) showed that long CSI led to better performance overall. Our results thus suggest that when non-overlapping response sets share common semantic categories across tasks, there is no general benefit over overlapping response sets.