Role of working memory in task switching

Abstract

A review shows that task switching under memory load yields variable patterns of findings with some studies showing no interaction at all, while other studies provide evidence for an interaction. A model of working memory is presented consisting of a declarative storage component for instantiation of information and an executive storage module that contains task sets and task rules. The model is applied to two studies with very similar methodologies but yielding contrasting results, namely the task-span procedure (Logan, 2004) and the time-based resource sharing procedure (Liefooghe, Barrouillet, Vandierendonck, & Camos, 2008), when task switching is performed under a working memory load. The model accounts for the contradictory results, supporting the general hypothesis that task switching calls on working memory.