RELATION OF TASK SWITCHING TO SPEED, AGE, AND FLUID INTELLIGENCE

Two studies were conducted to investigate whether a meaningful task-sw itching construct could be identified and, if so, to determine how it was related to measures of higher order cognition and to adult age. Bo th studies revealed that measures of task switching were moderately co rrelated across different combinations of tasks and that a switching c onstruct could be distinguished from a construct reflecting processing speed. The results of the 2nd study revealed that although the task-s witching construct was related to age and to measures of episodic memo ry, inductive reasoning, and spatial visualization, most of the relati ons between the switching construct and both age and other measures of cognition were shared with other variables.