The double task-switching protocol: An investigation into the effects of similarity and conflict on cognitive flexibility in the context of mental fatigue

Considerable fundamental studies have focused on the mechanisms governing cognitive flexibility and the associated costs of switching between tasks. Task-switching costs refer to the phenomenon that reaction times and accuracy decrease briefly following the switch from one task to another. However,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2023-02, Vol.18 (2), p.e0279021-e0279021
Main Authors: Hinss, Marcel F, Brock, Anke M, Roy, Raphaëlle N
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accuracy
Analysis
Biology and Life Sciences
Cognition
Cognitive ability
Cognitive Sciences
Costs
Cues
Diagnosis
Engineering and Technology
Fatigue
Flexibility
Health risks
Humans
Hypotheses
Investigations
Life Sciences
Medicine and Health Sciences
Mental Fatigue
Neurons and Cognition
Operators
Psychomotor Performance
Reaction Time
Registered Report Protocol
Research and Analysis Methods
Social Sciences
Switches
Switching
Task complexity
Validity
Visual Perception
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Summary:Considerable fundamental studies have focused on the mechanisms governing cognitive flexibility and the associated costs of switching between tasks. Task-switching costs refer to the phenomenon that reaction times and accuracy decrease briefly following the switch from one task to another. However, cognitive flexibility also impacts day-to-day life in many complex work environments where operators have to perform several different tasks. One major difference between typical tasks examined in fundamental studies and real-world applications is that fundamental studies often rely on much more similar tasks, which is not the case for real-world applications. In the latter, operators may switch between vastly dissimilar tasks. Therefore, this behavioural study aims to test if task-switching costs are different for switches between similar and dissimilar tasks. The proposed protocol has participants switch between 2 pairs of two tasks each. Between pairs, there is more dissimilarity, while the two tasks within each pair are more similar. In addition, this study examines the impact of mental fatigue and interference in form of confounding information on cognitive flexibility. To induce mental fatigue the participants' breaks between blocks will be limited. We expect that dissimilarity between tasks will result in greater task-switching costs.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0279021