The interplay of crossmodal attentional preparation and modality compatibility in cued task switching

Abstract

Two experiments examined the influence of preparation on modality compatibility effects in task switching. The term modality compatibility refers to the similarity between the stimulus modality and the modality of response-related sensory consequences. Previous research showed evidence for modality compatibility benefits in task switching when participants switched either between two modality compatible tasks (auditory-vocal and visual-manual) or between two modality incompatible tasks (auditory-manual and visual-vocal). In this study, we investigated the influence of active preparation on modality compatibility effects in task switching. To this end, in Experiment 1, we introduced unimodal modality cues, whereas in Experiment 2, bimodal abstract cues were used. In both experiments, the cue-stimulus interval (CSI) was manipulated while holding the response-stimulus interval (RSI) constant. In both experiments, we found not only decreased switch costs with long CSI but also the elimination of the residual switch costs. More importantly, this preparation effect did not modulate the modality compatibility effect in task switching. To account for this data pattern, we assume that cue-based preparation of switches by modality mappings was highly effective and produced no residual reaction time (RT) costs with long CSI.