Tasks, Task Sets, and the Mapping Between Them

This chapter asks what actually constitutes a task. It has long been suggested that task switching requires implementing a task set, but the nature of the task set itself often goes unspecified. How can we tell whether task set reconfiguration has occurred if we are not clear what a task set really is? It is argued here that task switching research—and its associated theorizing—has been hampered by poor definitions of what are tasks and task sets. The chapter provides a distinction between the two: a task is the representation of a set of instructions required to perform an activity accurately; a task set is the set of representations and processes that enable execution of the task. It argues that contrary to the often-held assumption that switching between two tasks in a task switching paradigm requires switching between two task sets, tasks and task sets do not necessarily have a one-to-one mapping. It provides recommendations for how to explore the nature of the relationship between tasks and task sets.