Abstract
Internal working memory (WM) gating control policies have been suggested to constitute a critical component of task-sets that can be learned and transferred to very similar task contexts (Bhandari and Badre (Cognition, 172, 33–43, 2018). Here, we attempt to expand these findings, examining whether such control policies can be also trained and transferred to other untrained cognitive control tasks, namely to task switching and AX-CPT. To this end, a context-processing WM task was used for training, allowing to manipulate either input (i.e., top-down selective entry of information into WM) or output (i.e., bottom-up selective retrieval of WM) gating control policies by employing either a context-first (CF) or context-last (CL) task structure, respectively. In this task, two contextual cues were each associated with two different stimuli. In CF condition, each trial began with a contextual cue, determining which of the two subsequent stimuli is target relevant. In contrast, in the CL condition the contextual cue appeared last, preceded by a target and non-target stimulus successively. Participants completed a task switching baseline assessment, followed by one practice and six training blocks with the WM context-processing training task. After completing training, task-switching and AX-CPT transfer blocks were administrated, respectively. As hypothesized, compared to CL training condition, CF training led to improved task-switching performance. However, contrary to our predictions, training type did not influence AX-CPT performance. Taken together, the current results provide further evidence that internal control policies are (1) inherent element of task-sets, also in task switching and (2) independent of S-R mappings. However, these results need to be cautiously interpreted due to baseline differences in task-switching performance between the conditions (overall slower RTs in the CF condition). Importantly though, our results open a new venue for the realm of cognitive enhancement, pointing here for the first time to the potential of control policies training in promoting wider transfer effects.
Highlights
Internal working memory (WM) gating control policies have been suggested to constitute a critical component of task-sets that can be learned and transferred to very similar task contexts (Bhandari and Badre (Cognition, 172, 33–43, 2018)
The number of participants was not based on power analysis conducted in advance, we note that Bayes Factors Design Analysis (REF; Schönbrodt and Wagenmakers 2018) assuming a between-subjects effect of Cohen’s D = 0.5 indicates the following: If the effect were present, we would have correctly detected it in 84.6% of the cases, would have wrongly concluded that it is absent in 0.8%, and would have remained undecided in 14.6%
For the response time (RT) data, the results revealed the typical switch cost pattern, such that slower responses were obtained on task-switch (M = 811 ms, 95% CI [765, 857]) as compared to task-repeat trials (M = 743 ms, 95% CI [703, 784], F(1, 77) = 26.75, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.26, BF10 > 100)
Summary
Internal working memory (WM) gating control policies have been suggested to constitute a critical component of task-sets that can be learned and transferred to very similar task contexts (Bhandari and Badre (Cognition, 172, 33–43, 2018). Changing task information such as task rules and stimuli throughout training (i.e., content variability) was shown to promote transfer gains and to prevent negative transfer (costs), presumably by encouraging the formation of abstract task-rules (Karbach and Kray 2009; Pereg et al 2013; Sabah et al 2018; Shahar et al 2018) Additional support for these claims comes from video game training studies, attributing the favorable transfer outcomes to variability in contextual information and to the related variability in cognitive processes offered (for review see Bavelier et al 2012). We aim to investigate more directly how the training of internal control policies may influence transfer to new tasks that might benefit from its application
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