Task Set Regulation

Monsell, Stephen

doi:10.1002/9781118920497.ch2

Cited by 18 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 98 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…As is commonly observed in the literature (Kiesel et al, 2010;Monsell, 2017), participants' performance was worse when shifting mental sets as compared to when target and distracter colors repeated. Importantly, the size of these shifting costs depended on the control demands posed by the different shifting conditions.…”

Section: Persisting Amplification and Inhibition Affect Behavior And Fmtsupporting

confidence: 74%

“…Theoretical accounts of task-set regulation hold that the updating of a task-set comprises multiple elements including the re-orientation of attention towards different task-relevant stimulus features, the recall and implementation of new stimulus-response mappings from memory, the preparation of different effectors for responding, or the adjustment of response thresholds for the decision process (e.g. Goschke, 2000;Logan & Gordon, 2001;Monsell, 2017).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Frontal Midline Theta Reveals Temporal Dynamics of Target Amplification and Distracter Inhibition During Mental Set-Shifting

Frisch¹,

Surrey²,

Dshemuchadse³

et al. 2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

When humans shift between tasks, they initially show slower responses in the new task than in the previous one. Persisting attentional settings are increasingly recognized as a source for these shifting costs. However, the extent to which specific mechanisms underlying information selection and interference control contribute to this phenomenon remains less clear. Here, we use time-frequency analyses of human electroencephalogram (EEG) data to explore the aftereffects of two such mechanisms: target amplification and distracter inhibition. Participants completed a set-shifting task in which interference during switch trials could either result from the persisting amplification of previous target colors or the persisting inhibition of previous distracter colors. In a first set of analyses, we focused on frontal midline theta (FMT) as a time-continuous marker of overall interference. Compared to a control condition, we found transient peaks of FMT in both experimental conditions that matched the effects of persisting target amplification and distracter inhibition predicted by a computational model of the task. In a second set of analyses we used steady-state visually evoked potentials (SSVEPs) as a direct measure of the attentional resources allocated to target and distracter colors. However, SSVEP amplitudes did not differ reliably between stimulation frequencies during switch trials, preventing us from drawing further conclusions on the origins of the interference processes reflected in FMT dynamics. Implications for theories of selective attention and potential limitations of frequency tagging in the context of mental set-shifting research are discussed.

show abstract

Section: Persisting Amplification and Inhibition Affect Behavior And Fmtsupporting

confidence: 74%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Frontal Midline Theta Reveals Temporal Dynamics of Target Amplification and Distracter Inhibition During Mental Set-Shifting

Frisch¹,

Surrey²,

Dshemuchadse³

et al. 2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…When examining costs, switch targets showed marginally significant restart costs [ t (21) = 1.99, p = 0.059, Cohen's d = 0.20], while repeat targets showed highly significant restart costs [ t (21) = 5.60, p < 0.001, Cohen's d = 0.43]. There was a switch benefit on first target trials [ t (21) = 2.79, p = 0.011, Cohen's d = 0.60], which probably reflects residual switch costs, as reported in previous task switching studies using long cue-target intervals (e.g., Forstmann et al, 2007 ; Periáñez and Barceló, 2009 ; Monsell, 2017 ; Díaz-Blancat et al, 2018 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 68%

“…In such situations, switch costs are expected to be reduced to residual costs and, even if these are often larger in switch relative to repeat trials (Monsell, 2017 ), a paradoxical switch benefit (or “repetition cost”) has been often observed on first repeat trials of intermittent task-cueing studies with long cue-target intervals (Allport and Wylie, 2000 ; Schneider and Logan, 2006 , 2015 ; Altmann and Gray, 2008 ; Díaz-Blancat et al, 2018 ). Various explanations have been proposed for the presence of this residual repetition cost (Monsell, 2017 ). One is the interfering reactivation of the competing task rule by the first repeat cue that had just been associatively bound to a different task rule in the previous trial run.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These sustained target P3-like positivities were larger following switch compared to repeat cues, thus providing an EEG index of switch costs for first targets that matched switch costs in behavioral accuracy. In contrast, mean RTs were similarly increased in switch and repeat trials, and only captured residual restart costs given the long cue-target interval employed (cf., Monsell, 2003 , 2017 ). In subsequent target trials, the sustained P3-like positivity decreased rapidly, and completely faded away in third target trials (i.e., after the same task rule had been rehearsed three times), where all visual targets elicited the classic target P3b (peak latency 350–400 ms) showing similar amplitudes and mid-parietal scalp distributions regardless of the meaning of the previous cue for switching or repeating rules.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Functional Dissociation of Latency-Variable, Stimulus- and Response-Locked Target P3 Sub-components in Task-Switching

Brydges

Barceló

2018

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Cognitive control warrants efficient task performance in dynamic and changing environments through adjustments in executive attention, stimulus and response selection. The well-known P300 component of the human event-related potential (ERP) has long been proposed to index “context-updating”—critical for cognitive control—in simple target detection tasks. However, task switching ERP studies have revealed both target P3 (300–350 ms) and later sustained P3-like potentials (400–1,200 ms) to first targets ensuing transition cues, although it remains unclear whether these target P3-like potentials also reflect context updating operations. To address this question, we applied novel single-trial EEG analyses—residue iteration decomposition (RIDE)—in order to disentangle target P3 sub-components in a sample of 22 young adults while they either repeated or switched (updated) task rules. The rationale was to revise the context updating hypothesis of P300 elicitation in the light of new evidence suggesting that “the context” consists of not only the sensory units of stimulation, but also associated motor units, and intermediate low- and high-order sensorimotor units, all of which may need to be dynamically updated on a trial by trial basis. The results showed functionally distinct target P3-like potentials in stimulus-locked, response-locked, and intermediate RIDE component clusters overlying parietal and frontal regions, implying multiple functionally distinct, though temporarily overlapping context updating operations. These findings support a reformulated version of the context updating hypothesis, and reveal a rich family of distinct target P3-like sub-components during the reactive control of target detection in task-switching, plausibly indexing the complex and dynamic workings of frontoparietal cortical networks subserving cognitive control.

show abstract

Fast Neural Dynamics of Proactive Cognitive Control in a Task-Switching Analogue of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

One common assumption has been that prefrontal executive control is mostly required for target detection (Posner and Petersen in Ann Rev Neurosci 13:25-42, 1990). Alternatively, cognitive control has also been related to anticipatory updating of task-set (contextual) information, a view that highlights proactive control processes. Frontoparietal cortical networks contribute to both proactive control and reactive target detection, although their fast dynamics are still largely unexplored. To examine this, we analyzed rapid magnetoencephalographic (MEG) source activations elicited by task cues and target cards in a task-cueing analogue of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. A single-task (color sorting) condition with equivalent perceptual and motor demands was used as a control. Our results revealed fast, transient and largely switch-specific MEG activations across frontoparietal and cingulo-opercular regions in anticipation of target cards, including (1) early (100-200 ms) cue-locked MEG signals at visual, temporo-parietal and prefrontal cortices of the right hemisphere (i.e., calcarine sulcus, precuneus, inferior frontal gyrus, anterior insula and supramarginal gyrus); and (2) later cue-locked MEG signals at the right anterior and posterior insula (200-300 ms) and the left temporo-parietal junction (300-500 ms). In all cases larger MEG signal intensity was observed in switch relative to repeat cueing conditions. Finally, behavioral restart costs and test scores of working memory capacity (forward digit span) correlated with cue-locked MEG activations at key nodes of the frontoparietal network. Together, our findings suggest that proactive cognitive control of task rule updating can be fast and transiently implemented within less than a second and in anticipation of target detection.

show abstract

Task Set Regulation

Cited by 18 publications

References 98 publications

Frontal Midline Theta Reveals Temporal Dynamics of Target Amplification and Distracter Inhibition During Mental Set-Shifting

Frontal Midline Theta Reveals Temporal Dynamics of Target Amplification and Distracter Inhibition During Mental Set-Shifting

Functional Dissociation of Latency-Variable, Stimulus- and Response-Locked Target P3 Sub-components in Task-Switching

Fast Neural Dynamics of Proactive Cognitive Control in a Task-Switching Analogue of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About