The extent to which tasks and stimuli repeat or alternate across trials is known to influence performance, with oculomotor behavior being impacted by task-switching (Mills et al., 2015). Previous examinations of task set and visual behavior, however, have generally required observers to perform different tasks on different scenes, thus neglecting the fact that an observer's task can change even when the visual input remains the same. The present study examined how task switching influences visual behavior when scenes are presented multiple timesa??does scene repetition moderate the effects of task switching and, if so, is repetition beneficial or detrimental to subsequent processing? Participants viewed scenes while performing either a search (is there a small N or Z embedded in the scene), memorization (post trial forced-choice recognition), or evaluation (rate pleasantness of scene on 7 point scale) task. Task and scenes were presented with varying lags such that a) the same task could be performed on the same image up to 3 times, b) the same task could be performed on different images up to 3 times, or c) an image could repeat up to three times with a different task performed on each trial. Thus, both the task and the scene could either alternate (full alternation) or repeat (full repetition) across lags, or either the task or the scene could alternate while the other was repeated (partial repetition). We found that scene repetition enhanced the effect of task-switching on eye movements, whereas scene alternations diminished it. These results suggest that perceptual processing transferred between tasks and memory for the previous task/scene exposure moderated the impact of task switching on visual behavior.
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