Stimulus-based priming of task choice during voluntary task switching.

Abstract

Two voluntary task-switching experiments probed the influence of previous exposures to stimuli and categorizations of these stimuli on task choice during subsequent exposures to the same stimuli. Subjects performed origin and size judgments under standard voluntary task-switching instructions to perform the tasks equally often in a random order. Both when subjects voluntarily selected the task on the first exposure (Experiment 1) and when the experimenter manipulated the task on the first exposure (Experiment 2), subjects chose to perform the same task on subsequent exposures significantly more often than would be expected on the basis of the instructions to perform tasks in a random order. Presentation of a previously encountered stimulus may result in the retrieval of a stimulus-task binding or event file that biases task selection as well as task readiness. The pattern of data across the 2 experiments suggests that stimulus-based priming influences task choice through both retrieval of episodes within the context of the experiment and semantic memory mechanisms.

The influence of response conflict on voluntary task switching: a novel test of the conflict monitoring model

“…Therefore, its subsequent reappearance may have primed participants to repeat that response (Hommel, 1998), and this bias might somehow have been greater following incongruent and/or incorrect trials. This possibility is consistent with previous findings suggesting an influence of stimulus-response priming on voluntary task choice (Arrington, Weaver, & Pauker, 2010;Demanet, Liefooghe, Verbruggen, & Vandierendonck, 2010;Mayr & Bell, 2006).…”

Working memory capacity modulates task performance but has little influence on task choice

“…Task difficulty may have been induced by the order in which tasks were practiced; the parity task was the first task participants practiced. The initial task performed by a participant during the experimental session has been shown to bias later task choices (Arrington, Weaver, & Pauker 2010). The correlation of p(parity) with WMC suggests that this bias was more pronounced for individuals with lower WMC.…”

“…These predictions were generated from the view that task choice processes include maintaining a representation of the most recent sequence of tasks, updating that representation as new tasks are performed, and making a choice about what constitutes a random sequence while resisting the biasing influence of the previously executed task (Arrington & Logan, 2005;Mayr & Bell, 2006) and while ignoring environmental information to guide task choice (Arrington, 2008;Arrington & Logan, 2005;Arrington et al, 2010;Demanet et al, 2010). Goal maintenance and updating while resisting the biasing influence of competing sources of information seem to be precisely the conditions that reveal WMC-related differences in other tasks (see , for a review).…”

Influences of unconscious priming on voluntary actions: Role of the rostral cingulate zone

“…Intuitively one would think that free choices are mostly determined by our own intentions and internal goals. Previous research, however, suggests that free choices may not be as free as they seem to be, and are strongly influenced by cues from the environment or past experiences (Bargh et al, 2001;Arrington & Logan, 2005;Arrington, Weaver & Pauker, 2010;Wenke, Fleming & Haggard, 2010;Orr & Weissman, 2011;Orr, Carp, & Weissman, 2012;Demanet et al, 2013;Orr & Banich, 2014). Wenke and colleagues (2010), for example, found that subliminal primes influence the responses on free choice trials in such a way that people responded significantly more slowly when they chose to act against the prime (in a prime-incompatible way).…”