Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Task interruption and its effects on memory.

M B Edwards1, S D Gronlund

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Oklahoma, Norman 73019, USA. mbedwar@uswest.com

Memory (Hove, England)
|May 13, 1999
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Global matching models of recognition memory: How the models match the data.

Psychonomic bulletin & review·2013
Same author

Comparison of outcomes after aortic valve replacement with a mechanical valve or a bioprosthesis using microsimulation.

Heart (British Cardiac Society)·2004
Same author

Cohort survey of heart valve replacement patients: does the valve card scheme have room for improvement?

BMJ (Clinical research ed.)·2001
Same author

Basal insulin therapy in type 2 diabetes: 28-week comparison of insulin glargine (HOE 901) and NPH insulin.

Diabetes care·2001
Same author

Prosthetic heart valves: evaluation of magnetic field interactions, heating, and artifacts at 1.5 T.

Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI·2000
Same author

A profile of valve replacement surgery in the UK (1986-1997): a study from the UK Heart Valve Registry.

The Journal of heart valve disease·2000
Same journal

Episodic and semantic memory contributions to imagination and creativity.

Memory (Hove, England)·2026
Same journal

What is the relationship between stress and prospective memory in everyday environments?

Memory (Hove, England)·2026
Same journal

Revisiting the confidence-accuracy relationship in eyewitness identification: a metacognitive perspective.

Memory (Hove, England)·2026
Same journal

Beliefs about child witnesses: a survey of Danish legal professionals, social workers and psychologists.

Memory (Hove, England)·2026
Same journal

Potto-biographical memory ≈ autobiographical memory: on the retrieval and organisation of fictional- and personal-event memories.

Memory (Hove, England)·2026
Same journal

Conceptual and perceptual chunking of real-world objects in visual working memory.

Memory (Hove, England)·2026
See all related articles

Memory recovery after task interruption depends on task structure. Associatively linked tasks show better recall, unaffected by interruption similarity, unlike tasks lacking such links.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Human Memory
  • Task Interruption Studies

Background:

  • Understanding how memory is affected by interruptions is crucial for optimizing task performance and learning.
  • Previous research indicates interruptions can impair recall, but the factors influencing this impairment are not fully understood.
  • The role of task structure, specifically associative support between task components, in mitigating interruption effects requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the impact of interruption similarity on memory recovery for a primary task.
  • To examine how associative support within a primary task influences the effects of interruption similarity on memory recall.
  • To compare memory recall for completed versus unfinished actions following task interruptions.

Main Methods:

Related Experiment Videos

  • Participants performed a primary task, which was interrupted.
  • Interruptions varied in their degree of information overlap with the primary task.
  • The primary task was designed with or without associative support between its components.

Main Results:

  • When the primary task lacked associative support, memory recovery was hindered by interruption similarity (interruption-similarity effect).
  • In tasks lacking associative support, memory for completed actions was better than for unfinished actions.
  • When the primary task possessed associative support, interruption similarity had no adverse effect, and recall for completed and unfinished actions was equivalent.

Conclusions:

  • Associative support within a task acts as a buffer against memory impairment caused by similar interruptions.
  • The nature of memory recall (completed vs. unfinished actions) is contingent on both task structure and interruption characteristics.
  • These findings have implications for designing tasks and managing interruptions in educational and professional settings to enhance memory and performance.