Investigating the shift between externally and internally oriented cognition: a novel task-switching paradigm.

ABSTRACT: Despite our constant need to flexibly balance internal and external information, research on cognitive flexibility has focused solely on shifts between externally oriented tasks. In contrast, switches across internally oriented processes (and self-referential cognition specifically) and between internal and external domains have never been investigated. Here, we report a novel task-switching paradigm developed to explore the behavioural signatures associated with cognitive flexibility when self-referential processes, as well as more traditional external processes, are involved. Two hundred healthy volunteers completed an online task. In each trial, participants performed one of four possible tasks on written words, as instructed by a pre-stimulus cue. These included two externally and two

SUBMITTER: Calzolari S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9675616 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature