과제 전환 훈련
파랑=홀짝, 주황=크기 — 규칙이 수시로 바뀝니다.
🎯 배경색이 규칙을 정합니다: 파랑 = 홀짝 · 주황 = 크기(5 기준)
🎯 전환 직후 첫 문제가 가장 느립니다(전환 비용) · 오답 시 정답 표시 · 30문제 1라운드, 기록 자동 저장
What Is Task Switching?
Task switching is the classic paradigm for measuring cognitive flexibility: a digit appears on a colored card — blue means judge odd/even, orange means judge big/small (>5 or <5). The background is the rule cue, and it can change on any trial. Psychologists find that the first trial after a switch is reliably slower (the switch cost) because the prefrontal cortex must inhibit the old rule and load the new one. Playing this game drills exactly that mental gear-shift.
How to Play & Scoring
- Color picks the rule: digits 1–9 (never 5); blue asks odd/even, orange asks big/small.
- 30 trials per round: instant feedback on every answer, with the correct one flashed if you err; the round ends with accuracy and average reaction time.
- Records saved: your best correct count is stored locally — chase a perfect 30/30.
Cognitive-flexibility Tips
- Color first, digit second: the rule decides everything — give your first glance to the background and save real time.
- Expect the switch: after a run of same-rule trials, prime yourself to shift; switch cost mostly comes from being caught off guard.
- Automate the judgments: drill "3579 odd, 6789 big" until it's reflex, freeing resources for shifting.
- The full trio: combine with Stroop (inhibition) and N-back (working memory) to cover all three executive functions in the Prefrontal Training collection.
Measuring the Cost of Changing Your Mind
Task-switching experiments are among cognitive psychology's most instructive paradigms — the earliest versions date back to a 1927 study by Arthur Jersild — because they isolate something everyone feels daily: the momentary stumble when the rules change. Here the rule lives in the card color. Blue means classify the digit as odd or even; orange means judge it big or small. The digits obey, the colors flip, and every flip charges a small tax on your processing — the famous switch cost.
That cost is not a bug; it is the workout. The mental machinery being trained — holding a rule active, replacing it on demand, resisting the previous rule's pull — is what psychologists group under executive function, the control system behind multi-tasking, code-switching between projects and not answering the old question when the question has changed. Expect the switches to stay slightly slower than the repeats forever; the point is a smaller gap, not zero.
자주 묻는 질문
What does task switching train?
Cognitive flexibility — rapidly switching between rules and suppressing interference from the previous one. Supported by the prefrontal cortex, it is one of the three core executive functions and underpins adaptability and multitasking.
What is the switch cost?
The first trial after a rule change is measurably slower and more error-prone; that difference is the switch cost. It's the classic index of cognitive flexibility — the smaller your cost, the nimbler your thinking.
Why is there never a 5?
5 is odd yet neither greater nor less than 5, which would make the size rule ambiguous. Trials only show 1–4 and 6–9 so every card has a clean answer under both rules.
Is it suitable for kids?
Great for elementary ages and up — odd/even and big/small are early-grade math concepts, and rule switching is a healthy executive-function workout. Adults can chase 100% accuracy and faster average reaction times.
Why am I slower right after the color changes in Task Switching?
That dip is the switch cost itself — the measurable time your brain needs to unload the old rule and load the new one. It is the very thing being trained, so treat the stumble as the exercise, not a mistake: consistent practice shrinks the gap between switch trials and repeat trials.
Should I prioritize speed or accuracy in Task Switching?
Accuracy first, always. The classic speed-accuracy tradeoff applies double here, because a fast wrong answer and a slow right answer are not the same performance at all — fast-wrong means the rule slipped. Lock in accuracy at each speed, then nudge the pace up; the speed follows the correctness.