Dual-Task Processing With Identical Stimulus and Response Sets: Assessing the Importance of Task Representation in Dual-Task Interference
archive: archived pipeline: cataloged
Get this paper ↗ (DOI — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)
Summary
This study investigates the sources of dual-task interference, specifically testing whether performance costs arise from the structural demands of processing multiple stimuli and responses or from the internal representation of tasks. Traditional dual-task paradigms, such as the psychological refractory period (PRP) procedure, confound task-related interference with the additional processing required for multiple stimuli and responses. To isolate the effect of task representation, Schumacher et al. (2018) developed a novel procedure where participants performed two conditions with identical stimulus sets (face and building images) and identical response sets (unimanual, bimanual, or no response). In the "independent" condition, stimuli mapped to responses separately, requiring two distinct task representations. In the "relational" condition, the pair of stimuli jointly determined the response, requiring a single integrated task representation. The experiment involved 16 participants who completed three sessions of practice and testing. Each trial presented a face and a building simultaneously. Participants responded using their index and middle fingers on both hands. The critical comparison was made in Session 3, after task representations were stable. Reaction times (RTs) and accuracy were analyzed using within-subjects ANOVAs. The study hypothesized that if task representation drives interference, bimanual responses would be slower than unimanual responses in the independent condition (reflecting dual-task costs), but this difference would vanish or reverse in the relational condition, where only one task is represented regardless of the number of responses. Results confirmed the hypothesis. In the independent condition, bimanual responses were significantly slower than unimanual responses, indicating typical dual-task interference. Conversely, in the relational condition, unimanual responses were significantly slower than bimanual responses, and no dual-task cost was observed for bimanual trials compared to the independent condition. Accuracy was high in both conditions by Session 3, with no significant differences between mapping conditions. The findings demonstrate that dual-task costs are not solely due to the physical act of producing two responses or processing two stimuli, but are significantly influenced by how participants mentally represent the tasks. When stimuli are represented as part of a single task, interference disappears even when two responses are required. This research provides evidence that task representation is a critical determinant of dual-task interference. It challenges the assumption that adding S-R mapping sets is equivalent to adding tasks, suggesting that the boundaries of task files (mental representations) dictate the locus of interference. The study highlights that control processes and representational structure, rather than just structural capacity limitations, govern multi-task performance. This has implications for understanding cognitive control mechanisms and designing tasks that minimize interference by encouraging integrated task representations.
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. Discovered via author_sweep_intake on 2026-05-28.
| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | author_sweep | — | — | 2 | 2026-05-28 |
| archive | success | canonical_url | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-22 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 3 | 2026-08-23 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-04 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-04 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-06-04 |
| enrich | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-28 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-04 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.8-27b-gittensor | summ-v5 | 2 | 2026-08-23 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 15 | 2026-06-11 |
Summary generated by qwen3.8-27b-gittensor on 2026-08-23; verification: pending re-verification.
Topics
Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.