Influences of Postural Control on Cognitive Control in Task Switching

Stephan, Denise N.; Hensen, Sandra; Fintor, Edina; Krampe, Ralf; Koch, Iring · 2018 · Crossref

DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01153

archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified

Get this paper ↗ (DOI — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)

Summary

This study investigates how postural control demands influence cognitive control processes during concurrent auditory-manual task switching. While postural control is often perceived as automatic, it requires attentional resources that may compete with cognitive tasks. The authors aimed to determine if increased postural demands (standing versus sitting) affect specific markers of cognitive control: switch costs, mixing costs, and the between-task congruency effect, which serves as a measure of task-set shielding. The research comprised two experiments using a cued task-switching paradigm. Participants performed parity (odd/even) and magnitude (smaller/larger than five) judgments on spoken number words while either sitting or standing. In Experiment 1, the cue-stimulus interval (CSI) was manipulated (100 ms vs. 1000 ms) to examine the role of preparation time. Experiment 2 utilized a fixed CSI to isolate postural effects. Performance was measured via response times (RT) and error rates (ER). The design allowed for the assessment of switch costs (performance decrement when switching tasks), mixing costs (cost of maintaining multiple task sets), and congruency effects (interference from irrelevant task rules). The results replicated standard task-switching effects, including significant switch costs, mixing costs, and congruency effects in both experiments. Preparation time in Experiment 1 successfully reduced these costs. Crucially, the study found a selective effect of postural control on the congruency effect. In Experiment 1, there was a trend toward a larger congruency effect when standing compared to sitting. This finding was confirmed as statistically significant in Experiment 2, where the congruency effect was markedly higher in the standing condition. No significant main effects of postural control were found for switch costs or mixing costs, indicating that the maintenance of task sets and the act of switching were not directly impaired by standing. The significance of these findings lies in the specific impact of postural demands on task-set shielding. The increased congruency effect while standing suggests that higher postural control demands reduce the ability to shield the currently relevant task set from the irrelevant one. This leads to a less selective attention mode that permits more parallel processing of concurrent task rules, thereby increasing interference. The study concludes that postural control does not generally impair cognitive flexibility or working memory load in task switching but specifically compromises the efficiency of inhibitory mechanisms required to prevent cross-talk between competing tasks. This highlights a nuanced interaction where motor control demands selectively affect the shielding of cognitive representations rather than the general capacity for task switching.

Provenance

The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed.

Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-25; verification: verified.

Topics

Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.

• task switching
• executive function