Tasks on Day 2

The test battery on the second testing day primarily assesses executive functions.

n-Back Task (Kirchner, 1958; Gajewski et al. 2018a)

The n-back task is a measure of working memory capacity, requiring maintaining, continuous updating, and processing of information. The task consists of a two-choice condition with low (0-back) and high (2-back) working memory load.

Task Switching (Rogers & Monsell, 1995; Gajewski et al. 2018b)

The task switching paradigm evaluates several control processes (task preparation, working memory, interference processing, and switching) by applying one experimental task consisting of three different experimental blocks. Participants either perform different single task conditions using the same stimulus material (numerical, parity, and font size tasks) in separate blocks of trials, or have to switch between the three tasks in a randomized order using a cue indicating the relevant task, or have to switch between the tasks every third trial, requiring memorizing and recalling the task sequence.

Auditory Distraction (Schröger & Wolff, 1998; Getzmann et al. 2014)

The task evaluates the ability to focus on a task-relevant stimulus feature while ignoring concurrent task-irrelevant features. Participants perform an auditory duration discrimination task on a random sequence of long- and short-tone stimuli with either a standard pitch (80%) or a deviant pitch (20%). EEG correlates of involuntary shifts in attention to the deviant stimulus feature and subsequent reorientation to the task-relevant feature are evaluated.

Interference Processing (Stroop, 1935; Gajewski et al. 2020)

The Stroop task measures the susceptibility to interference and the capacity to inhibit irrelevant stimuli and prepotent responses. Participants must indicate the meaning or the color of color words whereas the word color is either congruent or incongruent with the word’s meaning. Naming of the font color and inhibiting the word’s meaning in an incongruent trial is a complex executive function that produces strong interference.

Go/NoGo (Karlin, Martz & Mordkoff, 1970; Gajewski & Falkenstein, 2014)

A standard task to evaluate inhibitory control is the Go/NoGo task, in which participants are asked to respond under time pressure to frequent stimuli (letter K) while refraining from responding to the rare stimuli (letter T). First, participants conduct a baseline block to estimate their mean response time, which later serves as a time limit in the test block.

Visual Search (Treisman & Gelade, 1980; Gajewski et al. 2013)

The visual search task measures visual selective attention. Participants search for a target item presented together with eight distractor items (a matrix consisting of colored arrows with different orientations). In half of the trials, one of two predefined targets are present, whereas in the other half, only distractors are presented. Target detection is indicated by pushing of a button.