Task switching promotes switch readiness: Evidence from forced and voluntary task switching

People find it harder to switch from one task to another than to repeat a task. One common explanation is that lingering activation of the just-executed task facilitates repetitions and impairs switching. However, beyond specific task sets, it is also conceivable that switching a task increases more abstract switch readiness, whereas repeating a task reduces switch readiness. To investigate switch readiness independent of task-set activation, we used consecutive chunks, each consisting of two tasks, with self-paced breaks between chunks. This way, the salient task transition happens within a chunk, independent of the task transition between chunks. In four experiments, we applied a (hybrid) task-switching paradigm with a mixture of forced choice (only one task presented) and free choice (participants can decide which task to perform). We expected an increased ability and willingness to switch (i.e., switch readiness) in the current chunk when the previous chunk entailed a task switch rather than a repetition. In line with a switch-readiness account, Experiments 1 and 2 showed reduced switch costs and increased voluntary switch rates (VSR) after a switch within the previous chunk. Furthermore, this effect transferred to new task pairs (only descriptively in Experiment 3, significantly in Experiment 4). Taken together, the present study uncovered a novel property of sequential control during task switching.