Voluntary Task Switching Patterns in Everyday Tasks of Different Motivational Levels

摘要

In everyday settings people frequently perform multiple tasks within brief periods of time,typically called multi-tasking, task switching or task interleaving. Experimental studies of theseeffects typically involve an external cue or interruption to signal that the participant must switch.In contrast, in real world task interleaving the person doing the task frequently initiates the switch(e.g., Czerwinski, Horvitz, & Wilhite, 2004). Why an individual decides to make a voluntary taskswitch is largely an unexplored topic; the present study was designed to investigate motivationalfactors in switching tasks. Participants were allowed to switch freely between three tasks ofdifferent levels of interest and frustration-playing a game, searching letter for the letter "e" innonsense text, and reading about human factors psychology. After the session, they rated the taskson scales of interest and frustration. The results suggest that the level of frustration produced bythe task is a stronger motivator for switching tasks than is interest in the task.