Dealing with task interruptions in complex dynamic environments: are two heads better than one?

This study examined whether teaming up mitigates individual vulnerability to task interruptions in complex dynamic situations.

Omnipresent in everyday multitasking environments, task interruptions are usually detrimental to individual performance. This is particularly crucial in dynamic command and control (C2) safety-critical contexts because of the additional challenge imposed by the continually evolving situation during the interruption.

We employed a firefighting microworld to simulate C2 in the context of supervisory control to examine the relative impact of interruptions on participants working in a functional dyad versus operators working alone.

Although task interruption was detrimental to participants' efficacy of monitoring resources, the negative impact of interruption was reduced for those working in teams. Teaming up translated into faster resumption time, but only if both teammates were interrupted simultaneously. Interrupting only one team member was associated with increased postinterruption communications and slower resumption time.

These findings suggest that in complex dynamic situations working in a small team confers more resistance to task interruption than working alone by virtue of the reduced individual workload typical of teamwork. The benefit of collaborative work seems nevertheless mediated by the coordination and communication overhead associated with teamwork.

The present findings have practical implications for operators dealing with unexpected events such as task interruptions in C2 environments.