Examining the Effect of Interruptions at Different Breakpoints and Frequencies Within a Task

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Task Analysis

Background:

• Interruptions can be disruptive or beneficial, depending on timing and frequency.
• Understanding interruption effects is crucial for optimizing task performance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how event segmentation theory (EST) can identify optimal interruption timings.
• To explore the impact of interruption timing and frequency on task performance using hierarchical task analysis (HTA).

Main Methods:

• Undergraduates performed a trip planning task under varying interruption conditions (none, coarse, fine breakpoints; one or three interruptions).
• Measured task resumption lag, errors, mental workload, and frustration.

Main Results:

• Interruptions at fine breakpoints increased resumption lag and mental workload.
• Interruptions at coarse breakpoints yielded results similar to no interruption.
• Interruption frequency did not affect performance, but longer attention was paid to earlier interruptions.

Conclusions:

• The disruptiveness of interruptions is contingent on their placement within the task hierarchy.
• Coarse breakpoints, identified via HTA, may offer non-disruptive interruption opportunities.