Speaker
Description
Sequential control of action relies on both cognitive control and decision-making processes. Flexible task control is also supported by inhibition of recently abandoned task sets so that performance is slower in N-2 task repetition sequences (e.g., ABA) versus N-2 task switch sequences (CBA). However, it is not clear whether the mechanisms supporting sequential control of task sets generalize to voluntary rule selection. Research on voluntary task-switching suggested that two competing heuristics – availability and representativeness – are actively involved in biasing task selection. The availability heuristic encourages a short-term memory-based preference toward the most active representation while the representativeness prompts a selection strategy based on a top-down, long-term, representation of sequences.
Using an ad-hoc rule-shifting paradigm, we have previously found that participants show reduced preference in selecting rules that have been recently relevant (N-2 alternation bias). To dissociate inhibitory and heuristic accounts of such a preference, we manipulated the occurrence of N-2 rule repetitions and/or the relative frequency of rules.
The preliminary results show that while rule selection seems to adjust to the base-rate frequency of rules, the occurrence of N-2 repetition sequences further modulates the N-2 alternation bias and the effect of frequency. These findings may suggest the selective contribution of inhibitory and heuristic mechanisms in voluntary rule selection.
