ERIC Number: EJ885764
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2010-Jun
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0096-1523
EISSN: N/A
Timing Is Affected by Demands in Memory Search but Not by Task Switching
Fortin, Claudette; Schweickert, Richard; Gaudreault, Remi; Viau-Quesnel, Charles
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, v36 n3 p580-595 Jun 2010
Recent studies suggest that timing and tasks involving executive control processes might require the same attentional resources. This should lead to interference when timing and executive tasks are executed concurrently. This study examined the interference between timing and task switching, an executive function. In 4 experiments, memory search and digit classification were performed successively in 4 conditions: search-search (search followed by search), search-digit, digit-search, and digit-digit. In a control reaction time (RT) condition, participants provided RT responses in each of the 2 tasks. In a time production condition, an RT response was provided to the first stimulus, but the response to the second stimulus, S2, was given only when participants judged that a previously presented target duration had elapsed. When responding to S2 required a switch, RTs to S2 were longer, but produced intervals were unaffected. These results show that memory search affects concurrent timing, but not task switching. Task switching seems therefore to be 1 executive function that does not interfere with timing. (Contains 7 figures.)
Descriptors: Intervals, Reaction Time, Memory, Cognitive Processes, Task Analysis, Feedback (Response), Experimental Psychology, Undergraduate Students, Foreign Countries, Universities, Experiments, Adults
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A