The role of spatial information in advance task-set control: an event-related potential study
The role of spatial information in advance task-set control: an event-related potential study
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1460-9568.2008.06439.x
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发表时间：
2008-10-01
影响因子：
3.4
通讯作者：
Swainson, R.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Astle, D. E.;Jackson, G. M.;Swainson, R.
任务切换已被证明是研究认知控制机制的富有成效的范例。有趣的是，这种研究途径表明，在某种程度上，受试者能够在执行该任务之前改变任务集（前提是他们预先收到即将到来的任务的警告，例如以提示的形式）。事件相关电位 (ERP) 已被证明是测量这些快速预期控制过程的好方法。为了进一步探索这些过程，当前的研究检查了空间信息的可用性与线索锁定任务切换 ERP 效应之间的关系。比较了两组受试者：一组可以根据目标的颜色（“颜色”组）来划分任务集，第二组可以根据目标的位置（“空间”组）来划分任务集。两组的表现在相同程度上受益于任务转换（切换或重复）的预先提示，但 ERP 数据揭示了两组之间提示锁定（但不是目标锁定）的差异。这些差异中最显着的是，当空间组在任务之间切换时，后头皮上没有晚期阳性，前额头皮上没有晚期阴性。因此，这些效应本身不太可能索引刺激-反应“重新配置”——因为两组受试者的映射是相同的——而是这些任务切换过程对映射的表示方式很敏感。
Task-switching has proved to be a fruitful paradigm for studying cognitive control mechanisms. Interestingly, this avenue of study has revealed that subjects are, to some degree, able to bring about a change in task-set prior to the performance of that task (provided that they are given advance warning of the upcoming task, for instance in the form of a cue). Event-related potentials (ERPs) have proved to be a good way of measuring these rapid anticipatory control processes. To explore these processes further, the current study examined the relationship between the availability of spatial information and cue-locked task-switching ERP effects. Two groups of subjects were compared: one group could separate the task-sets on the basis of the targets' colour (the 'colour' group), the second on the basis of the targets' location (the 'spatial' group). The performance of both groups benefited to the same extent from advance cueing of task-transitions (switches or repeats), yet the ERP data revealed cue-locked (but not target-locked) differences between the two groups. The most striking of these differences was the absence of both a late positivity over posterior scalp and a late negativity over frontal scalp when the spatial group switched between tasks. Thus, it seems unlikely that these effects index stimulus-response 'reconfiguration' per se-as the mappings were identical for both groups of subjects-but rather that these task-switching processes are sensitive to how the mappings are represented.