Humans and other primates have a remarkable ability to perform a wide range of tasks and
behaviors, even novel ones, in order to achieve their goals. Further, they are able to shift …

Research in the past decades shed light on the different mechanisms that underlie our
capacity for cognitive control. However, the meta-level processes that regulate cognitive …

Highlights•An individual's level of cognitive flexibility (or switch cost) varies with context.•Two
key factors that modulate switch cost are switch rate and reward prospect.•We review recent …

Adaptive behavior requires the ability to focus on a current task and protect it from distraction
(cognitive stability), as well as the ability to rapidly switch to another task in light of changing …

While cognitive control enables the selection of goal-relevant responses, metacontrol
enables the selection of context-appropriate control operations. In task switching …

Frequent forced switching between tasks has been shown to reduce switch costs and
increase voluntary switch rates. So far, however, the boundary conditions of the influence of …

Human beings tend to avoid effort, if a less effortful option is equally rewarding. However,
and in sharp contrast to this claim, we repeatedly found that (a subset of) participants …

Cognitive flexibility and stability are usually thought of as two antagonistic control demands:
Flexibility allegedly comes at the cost of increased distractibility and reduced stability …

Highlights•The task-switching paradigm is a tool for studying cognitive flexibility.•Switch
costs reflect the ability to switch.•VSR reflect the motivation to switch.•A context of frequent …

Performance-contingent reward prospect modulates the stability-flexibility balance in
voluntary task switching. High reward prospect typically increases stability, indicated by a …