Time-based task expectancy: perceptual task indicator expectancy or expectancy of post-perceptual task components?

Monno, Irina; Aufschnaiter, Stefanie; Ehret, Sonja; Kiesel, Andrea; Poljac, Edita; Thomaschke, Roland · 2022 · Crossref

DOI: 10.1007/s00426-021-01588-1

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Summary

This study investigates the cognitive mechanisms underlying time-based task expectancy in multitasking, specifically determining whether temporal predictability facilitates post-perceptual task set preparation or perceptual processing of task indicators. Previous research demonstrated that performance improves when tasks are predictable based on preceding time intervals (foreperiods). However, because task indicators (e.g., colored stimuli) were previously correlated with both time and task, it remained unclear if the benefit stemmed from expecting the task rules or merely expecting the visual cue. The authors aimed to disentangle these processes by manipulating the correlation between foreperiods, stimulus colors, and task requirements. The researchers conducted two experiments using a task-switching paradigm where participants performed parity or magnitude judgments on numbers. The number’s color served as the task indicator. Crucially, the design employed four colors to allow for independent manipulation of color and task predictability. Two colors were strongly correlated with specific foreperiods (500 ms or 1500 ms), making them temporally predictable, while two other colors occurred equally often after both intervals, serving as neutral indicators. In Experiment 1, both color and task were predictable; in Experiment 2, only the task was predictable, as the color-task mapping was randomized across participants. This design allowed the comparison of trials where both color and task were expected, trials where only the task was expected (with a neutral color), and trials where neither was expected. The results indicated that participants responded significantly faster and with fewer errors only when the task indicator color was predictable by time. There was no significant performance advantage when the task alone was predictable but the color was neutral. Statistical analyses, including Bayesian repeated measures ANOVAs, provided evidence supporting the null hypothesis for task-only expectancy effects, while confirming benefits for color expectancy. The findings suggest that the performance improvements observed in previous studies were driven by the facilitation of perceptual visual processing of the task indicator rather than the preparatory activation of post-perceptual task sets. These findings clarify the nature of time-based expectancy in task switching, concluding that it operates primarily through perceptual mechanisms. The study demonstrates that temporal predictability accelerates the processing of visual cues associated with tasks, rather than directly facilitating the cognitive implementation of task rules. This distinction is significant for understanding how temporal information influences cognitive control, suggesting that the benefits of temporal preparation in multitasking may be largely perceptual rather than strategic or executive in nature.

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• task switching