Project folder (data, analyses script, experimental materials) of: Evidence of Task-Triggered Retrieval of the Previous Response: A Binding Perspective on Response-Repetition Benefits in Task Switching

In task switching, response repetitions (RR) usually yield performance benefits as compared to response switches, but only when the task also repeats. When the task switches, RR benefits vanish or even turn into costs, yielding an interaction between repeating versus switching the task and the response (the RR effect). Different theoretical accounts for this RR effect exist, but, in the present study, we specifically tested a prediction derived from binding and retrieval accounts. These maintain that RR benefits in task repetitions are due to the repeating task that retrieves the task-response binding formed in the previous trial. We employed a task-switching paradigm with three response options that allowed to differentiate error types. Across two experiments (N = 46 and N = 107) we showed that response-retrieval errors in response switch trials were more likely in task repetitions than switches, supporting the notion that the previous response is retrieved by the repeating task, despite being wrong. Such a finding is in line with binding and retrieval accounts but cannot be easily accommodated by the competing theoretical accounts. Thus, the present study indicates task-response binding as an important mechanism underlying RR benefits in task repetitions.