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Updated: Jun 26, 2025
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Task Interruption and Resumption Paradigm for Testing the Activation and Pursuit of an Abstract Thinking Goal
Published on: April 18, 2017
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Research on re-searching: interrupted foraging is not disrupted foraging
Injae Hong1,2,3, Jeremy M Wolfe4,5
1Visual Attention Lab, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, 02135, USA.
Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications
|May 15, 2024
Summary
Visual foraging behavior rules remain largely intact despite interruptions. This suggests that foraging strategies are resilient and not easily disrupted in simple environments.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Visual Perception
- Behavioral Science
Background:
- Classic visual search involves finding a single target.
- Foraging tasks involve searching multiple targets within a patch before moving to a new one.
- Foraging behavior is typically rule-governed.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if visual foraging rules are disrupted by interruptions.
- To examine how different types of interruptions affect foraging behavior.
- To determine the resilience of foraging rules.
Main Methods:
- Participants engaged in visual foraging tasks with varied interruptions.
- Experiment 1: Brief interruption and resumption in the same patch.
- Experiments 2 & 3: Patch abandonment (voluntary/compulsory) followed by resumption after visiting all patches.
Main Results:
- Foraging rules remained largely intact across interruption types.
- Experiment 2 indicated that task demands can override foraging rules.
- Participants demonstrated consistent performance despite interruptions.
Conclusions:
- Visual foraging behavior is resilient to interruptions in simple environments.
- Foraging rules are robust but can be influenced by task demands.
- Interruption does not significantly disrupt established foraging strategies.
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