Citation

Kidd DG, Monk CA. Proc. Hum. Factors Ergon. Soc. Annu. Meet. 2007; 51(4): 249-252.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/154193120705100422

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

People experience and handle interruptions on a daily basis. One strategy that people use to manage interruptions is to interleave an interrupting task with a primary task. Past interruptions research has mostly looked at the effects of a single interruption on primary task performance. This study sought to expand on past research by examining primary task performance during a period of interleaved interruptions. In this study, participants experienced either a single interruption or a series of interruptions that increased or decreased in duration. Task resumption in both interleaved interruption conditions was significantly faster than in the single interruption condition. The findings suggest that interleaving interruptions leads to more efficient task resumption than resuming after a single interruption.

Language: en