Task switching and serial memory: looking into the nature of switches and tasks

Task switching research has so far focused on the impact of switching task-sets between two-choice classification tasks that require little or no memory load. Empirical work is lacking however to determine whether the switching cost can be extended to other cognitive activities and to different types of switches. In the present study, switching between the content – verbal to spatial – of the tasks was contrasted with switching cognitive processes — categorization to serial memory. Our pattern of results revealed the absence of local and general switch costs on serial memory tasks, while substantial costs were observed with two-choice judgement tasks. Such a finding challenges the widely accepted assumption that task alternation comes with a considerable cost in performance regardless of the cognitive tasks undertaken. Our results are discussed in context of the predominant models of task switching.