Switching Between Cognitive Control States? No, Thank You.
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Cognitive control, essential for goal-directed behavior, often incurs costs. We examined whetherinternally switching between relaxed and focused control states during the same task is costlyand its interaction with an established demand source—interference. Using a Demand Selection task combined with the Stroop task, participants consistently avoided options with high internalstate switching (Experiments 1a, N = 64; 1b, N = 81) and frequent interference (Experiment 2, N= 86). Experiment 3 (N = 121) revealed that participants prioritized avoiding internal switchingover interference when both demands were manipulated. To address limitations of Experiment 3, we developed a novel parametric flanker task (Experiment 4, N = 50) enabling strongsimultaneous manipulation of both demands in Experiment 5 (N = 130). Experiment 5 showed participants traded off these demands when making decisions. Our findings refine models ofcontrol regulation, highlighting that adjusting control—not just exerting it—carries intrinsic costs.
