Cognitive Entities Underpinning Task Episodes

Abstract

Cognitive Entities Underpinning Task EpisodesAccounts of hierarchical cognition suggest that extended task episodes as one task entity and not individually execute their component acts. Such hierarchical execution is frequently thought to occur by first instantiating a sequence representation in working memory that then controls the identity and sequence of component steps. In contrast, we evidence hierarchical execution of extended behavior in situations where the identity and sequence of component steps was unknown and not linked to any sequence representation. Participants executed unpredictable trials wherein, depending on the margin color, they could either choose the smaller value or the font of the two numbers. Crucially, they were biased into construing a recurring instance of three or five trials as one task episode. Behavioral signs of hierarchy, identical to those seen previously with memorized sequence execution, were seen - High trial 1 RT, higher trial 1 RT before longer task episodes, and absence of trial level switch cost specifically across episode boundaries. This showed that hierarchical task sequence representations are not a requisite for hierarchical organization of cognition. Merely construing behavior to be executed as a task episode is enough for the accompanying cognition to be hierarchically organized. Task episodes are executed through the intermediation of episode related programs that are assembled at the beginning and control and organize cognition across time.