It’s Hard to Prepare for Task Novelty: Cueing the Novelty of Upcoming Tasks Does Not Facilitate Task Performance

Abstract

Rapidly learning new tasks, such as using new technology or playing a new game, is ubiquitous in our daily lives. Previous studies suggest that our brain relies on different networks for rapid task learning versus retrieving known tasks from memory, and behavioral studies have shown that novel versus practiced tasks may rely on different task configuration processes. Here, we investigated whether explicitly informing about the novelty of an incoming task would help participants prepare for different task configuration processes, such as pre-adjusting working memory gating functions. We hypothesized that if different task configuration processes can be prepared for, a pre-cue informing about the novelty of the upcoming task should lead to better task performance. Across four experiments, participants were first trained on a subset of tasks, followed by a test session in which pre-cues were provided in some blocks but not others. After comparing task performance between cued and uncued blocks, our results provided no evidence supporting the benefit of cueing for both practiced and novel tasks, suggesting that people cannot prepare for different task configuration processes in the absence of concrete task information.