Abstract
Cognitive control is a hallmark of human cognition. A large number of studies have focused on the plasticity of cognitive control and examined how repeated task experience leads to the improvement of cognitive control in novel task environments. However, it has been demonstrated that training-induced changes are very selective and that transfer occurs within one task paradigm but not across different task paradigms. The current study tested the possibility that cross-paradigm transfer would occur if a common cognitive control strategy is employed across different task paradigms. Specifically, we examined whether prior experience of using reactive control in one task paradigm (i.e., either the cued task-switching paradigm or the AX-CPT) makes adults (N = 137) and 9- to 10-year-olds (N = 126) respond in a reactive way in a subsequent condition of another task paradigm in which proactive control could have been engaged. Bayesian generalized mixed-effects models revealed clear evidence of an absence of cross-paradigm transfer of reactive control in both adults and school-aged children. Based on these findings, we discuss to what extent learned control could be transferred across different task contexts and the task-specificity of proactive/reactive control strategies.
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Data Availability
The data from the present experiment are publicly available at the Open Science Framework website: https://osf.io/fpx8r (adults) and https://osf.io/kvzpw (school-aged children).
Notes
There are three possible Bayes factor designs, (a) a fixed-n design, (b) an open-ended Sequential Bayes Factor (SBF) design, where researchers can test after each participant and can stop data collection whenever there is strong evidence for either hypothesis or, and (c) a modified SBF design that prescribes a maximal sample size where data collection stops regardless of the current evidence. Before running a study, researchers determine the most suitable design. Following this decision, researchers can utilize Monte Carlo simulations to examine the properties of each design (i.e., expected strength of evidence, expected sample size, expected probability of misleading evidence, expected probability of weak evidence).
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Funding
The research reported here was supported by a Grant- in-Aid for Japan Society for the Promotion of Science fellows (grant no. 22K13811) to K.Y., by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI (grant no.23KK0047) to S.S. and K.Y., and by a JSPS Bilateral Joint Research Project (grant no. JPJSBP120209916) to S.S. and C.J.
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Yanaoka, K., van ‘t Wout, F., Saito, S. et al. No evidence for cross-paradigm transfer of abstract task knowledge in adults and school-aged children. Mem Cogn (2024). https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-024-01581-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-024-01581-0