Project Details
Projekt
The role of inhibition in human multitasking performance
Applicant
Dr. Stefanie Schuch
Subject Area
General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
Term
from 2015 to 2024
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 274922157
A crucial cognitive process involved in human multitasking performance is the inhibition of irrelevant tasks. Inhibiting a previous, no longer relevant, task facilitates performing the currently relevant task in an efficient way. This project aims to investigate the characteristics of cognitive inhibition on the task level, using behavioral measures as well as diffusion modeling. Diffusion modeling allows for investigating the cognitive mechanisms underlying (multitasking) performance on a fine-graned level. Based on the research conducted during the first phase, research in the second phase will investigate the following aspects of task-level inhibitory control: I) Age-related and individual differences in task inhibition will be explored using diffusion modeling. II) In search for boundary conditions of task inhibition, the role of episodic retrieval effects for the measurement of task inhibition will be assessed, also using diffusion modeling. Moreover, given that the standard measure of task-level inhibition – N-2 task repetition costs – did not always prove reliable during phase 1, alternative measures will be explored in phase 2. III) Using a new paradigm, the triggering conditions of task inhibition (task conflict versus response conflict) will be investigated. IV) Two alternative measures of task inhibition, and their relationship to N-2 task repetition costs, will be assessed. Also, the effect size of N-2 task repetition costs will be assessed using a meta-analytic approach. V) The newly developed theoretical perspective of multiple conflict-control loops in multitasking will be explored empirically, by testing the relationship between task inhibition (as measured by N-2 task repetition costs) and conflict adaptation (as measured by congruency sequence effects), as well as their modulation by affective state. In sum, the knowledge gained from these studies will further inform theories of multitasking and task switching in cognitive psychology. Moreover, it will contribute to our understanding of differences between younger and older individuals in multitasking performance.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
