The impact of switch proportion on stimulus-based task conflict

Cognitive flexibility has been widely investigated using the task switching paradigm. In this context, it is common to observe that switching between tasks comes with a performance cost compared to repeating the same task. The resulting switch cost is therefore taken as a measure of cognitive flexibility. Importantly, previous studies have reported that the switch cost decreases in blocks where switches are frequent, thus suggesting that participants are more flexible when the probability of switching is high. In this regard, theories proposing that flexibility necessarily trades off with stability predict that increased flexibility should come with the cost of increased stimulus-based task conflict. In order to test this theory, the current study will investigate whether manipulating the proportion of switches affects the valency effect, a measure of stimulus-based task conflict. If there is a trade-off between stability and flexibility, we should observe a larger valency effect in majority-switch blocks. unknown other