Dissociating proactively and retroactively cued task switching: a route towards neuropsychological analyses of cognitive control

Abstract

Cognitive control is often examined in task switching paradigms with dissociable types of task switching. Proactive task-cuing presents switch cues, signaling both a change of task and the task to implement, which occur prior to imperative events. Proactive transition-cuing utilizes switch cues, signaling a change of task but not indicating the required task, which occur prior to imperative events. Retroactive transition-cuing utilizes switch cues, again signaling a change of task but not indicating the required task, which occur later than imperative events. Thirty-six healthy young adults participated in the study. Response time switch costs were most pronounced on proactive task-cuing, whereas perseveration errors showed highest prevalence on retroactive transition-cuing. Principal component analyses revealed evidence for two components corresponding to the distinction between proactive and retroactive task-cuing, thus implying a dissociation between proactively and retroactively cued task switching. Retroactive transitioncuing might be particularly sensitive to frontal lesions of the cortex.