At will or not at will: Electrophysiological correlates of preparation for voluntary and instructed task-switching paradigms

• Published in: Psychonomic bulletin & review Vol. 22; no. 5; pp. 1389 - 1402
• Main Authors: Chen, Poyu, Hsieh, Shulan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.10.2015; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Attention - physiology; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Brief Report; Cognitive Psychology; Color Perception - physiology; Contingent Negative Variation - physiology; Dominance, Cerebral - physiology; Electroencephalography; Evoked Potentials - physiology; Female; Humans; Internal-External Control; Male; Memory; Paradigms; Psychology; Psychomotor Performance - physiology; Reaction Time - physiology; Young Adult; Strategy; ERP; Voluntary task switching; LRP; Cognitive control
• ISSN: 1069-9384; 1531-5320; 1531-5320
• DOI: 10.3758/s13423-014-0789-9

The present study investigated whether the advanced reconfiguration processes of the voluntary switching (VTS) paradigm were different from those of the instructed task switching (ITS) paradigm by examining event-related potentials (ERPs) in a within-subjects design. Of importance, given that effector-to-task mapping might lead to differential preparatory strategies, two effector-to-task mapping groups were studied: the hand-to-task (HAND) and finger-to-task (FINGER) groups. Intriguingly, we found the increased posterior negativity for voluntary switch (and/or increased posterior positivity for voluntary repeat) was exclusive to the HAND group, whereas the increased switch-related late posterior positivity in the ITS paradigm was independent of the effector manipulation. Moreover, the lateralized readiness potentials (LRP) and the mu and beta motor-related amplitude asymmetries indicated that the differential switch-related modulations were not the byproduct of hand-specific preparation. The advanced preparatory strategies in the VTS and ITS paradigms are discussed.