An integrative approach to executive control in the task switching paradigm

Over recent years the task switching paradigm has become accepted as an experimental paradigm for exploring the control processes brought into play to configure the cognitive resources necessary to perform a given task. Research reviewed in this article shows that these control processes can be studied by requiring subjects to switch frequently between a small set of simple tasks. We first describe the theoretical framework of this approach, and address the question of task-set control. In the second part we review the main experimental protocols and consider theoretical accounts of switch cost and task preparation. In the third and final part, we report on the results of behavioral studies based on this paradigm, which have made new contributions to our understanding of executive control processes.