The Effect Of Working Memory Load On Hierarchical Representation Task Switching

Flexible goal-directed behavior usually requires higher cognitive control.In the study of cognitive flexibility,Weiss card sorting task and switch task paradigm are usually used.In the task switching paradigm,subjects need to perform two or more tasks essentially and alternately,and that involves the suppression of irrelevant information and the activation of relevant information about the current task,which is properly the background of the research on working memory.Whereas the study of the relationship between task switching and working memory have mixed results,so it is necessary to explore how working memory affects task witching.In this study,the research of the relationship between working memory and task switching was performed by using the dual task paradigm.On one hand,we can better understand the nature of the task switch,and on the other hand,we can better explore the role of working memory load in the switching task of hierarchical transformation,so that we are one step closer to understanding for their common subordinate executive function.First of all,the pre experiment adopts the clue switch task paradigm,and the three dimensions of the clues are followed act as a higher level,and the results shows that different hierarchical structure can be formed according to different instructions.In this experiment,it is found that the switching cost of high level is 107.19 ms,and the low level switching cost is 23.96 ms.level effect of 83.23 ms.In Study 1,on the basis of the preliminary experiments,dual task paradigm that involving hierarchically task switching and digital recognition task were used.The results show a significant interaction effect between hierarchically task switching and working memory load in response time.In Study 2,the presentation time of clues was modified from 800 ms to the key disappear that subjects press space button when they extracted the meaning of the clues.The results show that,on the reaction time that used to extract cues,the main effect of hierarchical is significant,but both the main effect of the load and the interaction between the two are not significant.The simple effect analysis show that,in the high level switching conditions,the subjects spend more time to extract cues than in low level switching and repetitive conditions.In the memory task,there is a significant interaction effect between the hierarchically level and working memory load.In conclusion,working memory load has no effect on the extraction of the hierarchical representation task,but it does effect on task performance.When working memory load reaching the upper limit,the effect of hierarchically level is the greatest.And the high level has a greater interference on working memory than low level.It also shows that the execution of task switching needs the participation of working memory,and a moderate amount of additional working memory load can help maintain level information.