Learning a nonmediated route for response selection in task switching

Abstract

Two modes of response selection--a mediated route involving categorization and a nonmediated route involving instance-based memory retrieval--have been proposed to explain response congruency effects in task-switching situations. In the present study, we sought a better understanding of the development and characteristics of the nonmediated route. In two experiments involving training and transfer phases, we investigated practice effects at the level of individual target presentations, transfer effects associated with changing category-response mappings, target-specific effects from comparisons of old and new targets during transfer, and the percentages of early responses associated with task-nonspecific response selection (the target preceded the task cue on every trial). The training results suggested that the nonmediated route is quickly learned in the context of target-cue order and becomes increasingly involved in response selection with practice. The transfer results suggested that the target-response instances underlying the nonmediated route involve abstract response labels coding response congruency that can be rapidly remapped to alternative responses, but not rewritten when category-response mappings change after practice. Implications for understanding the nonmediated route and its relationship with the mediated route are discussed.

Fig. 1

Examples of category–response mappings for the training and transfer phases.

Fig. 2

Mean response time as a function of response congruency, target type (old or new), and target presentation number in Experiment 1. The broken vertical line represents the transition from training to transfer. For old targets, response congruency was maintained from training to transfer. For new targets, presentations numbered 21–24 were actually presentations 1–4.

Fig. 3

Response congruency effect on response time as a function of target type (old or new) and target presentation number in Experiment 1. The broken vertical line represents the transition from training to transfer. For old targets, response congruency was maintained from training to transfer. For new targets, presentations numbered 21–24 were actually presentations 1–4.

Fig. 4

Percentage of early responses, p(early), as a function of response congruency, target type (old or new), and target presentation number in Experiment 1. The broken vertical line represents the transition from training to transfer. For old targets, response congruency was maintained from training to transfer. For new targets, presentations numbered 21–24 were actually presentations 1–4.

Fig. 5

Mean response time as a function of response congruency, target type (old or new), and target presentation number in Experiment 2. The broken vertical line represents the transition from training to transfer. For old targets, response congruency was reversed from training to transfer, such that the old targets labeled incongruent in transfer correspond to the congruent targets in training and the old targets labeled congruent in transfer correspond to the incongruent targets in training. For new targets, presentations numbered 21–24 were actually presentations 1–4.

Fig. 6

Response congruency effect on response time as a function of target type (old or new) and target presentation number in Experiment 2. The broken vertical line represents the transition from training to transfer. For old targets, response congruency was reversed from training to transfer; therefore, what is shown for old targets is actually an inverted response congruency effect if the original response congruency labels from training are used. For new targets, presentations numbered 21–24 were actually presentations 1–4.

Fig. 7

Percentage of early responses, p(early), as a function of response congruency, target type (old or new), and target presentation number in Experiment 2. The broken vertical line represents the transition from training to transfer. For old targets, response congruency was reversed from training to transfer, such that the old targets labeled incongruent in transfer correspond to the congruent targets in training and the old targets labeled congruent in transfer correspond to the incongruent targets in training. For new targets, presentations numbered 21–24 were actually presentations 1–4.