Helpful or Harmful. Examining the Effects of Interruptions on Task Performance.

摘要

Most studies examining the impact of interruptions on primary task performance showed that interruptions can be detrimental in accomplishing the primary task (Altmann & Trafton, 2004; Czerwinski, Cutrell, & Horovitz, 2000; Gillie & Broadbent, 1989; Monk, Boehm-Davis, & Trafton, 2002, 2004; Trafton, Altmann, Brock, & Mintz, 2003). Interruptions have increased the time required to accomplish the primary task, led to more errors, and elicited greater feelings of stress and anxiety (Adamcyzk & Bailey, 2004). Although the majority of the interruptions literature has focused on the deleterious effects of interruptions, Speier and colleagues have shown that interruptions can be beneficial to performance on the primary task (Speier, Valacich, & Vessey, 1999; Speier, Vessey, & Valacich, 2003). Speier et al. (1999) showed that on simple decision making tasks interruptions resulted in a shorter total time to complete the primary task as compared to a condition with no interruptions; accuracy was equivalent in both conditions. This work suggests that interruptions cause arousal and stress levels to elevate and attention to narrow, resulting in faster performance on simpler tasks. On the other hand, when performing a complex task, the interruptions exceed the cognitive capacity of the decision maker. The increased arousal may cause relevant cues to be ignored resulting in a longer time to complete the primary task and an increased error rate. However, while performing a simple task, it is not clear what specific processes led to the faster task performance. Arousal could lead to a general speed-up in processing resulting from faster motor and perceptual processes, or it could lead to a speed-up in one specific cognitive process. The first goal of this paper was to replicate the finding that interruptions improve performance on a simple task.