Stephan, D. & Koch, I.
RWTH Aachen University
Current theories of cognitive control assume that a task set is needed to perform a certain task. Thus, it reflects the mental representation of the task and involves the necessary cognitive processes, the representation of the set of the relevant stimuli, the required responses and the mapping between these stimuli and responses. In general, task sets are described to be abstract and amodal. We report experiments in which we systematically examine the influence of modality specific factors on task sets using task switching methodology. More specifically, we examined the role of compatibility of input and output (I-O) modality mappings in task switching. Our experiments included switching between auditory-vocal and visual-manual tasks (compatible) and between auditory-manual and visual-vocal tasks (incompatible). Overall, the resulting switch costs were smaller when participants switched between compatible tasks compared to when they switched between incompatible tasks. Reduced switch costs in compatible tasks may be due to special linkages between input and output modalities, whereas incompatible tasks increase cross-talk, presumably due to dissipating interference of correct and incorrect response modalities. These special linkages are part of the task set. Our data suggest that task sets are modality specific rather than being entirely abstract and amodal!