The Effects of Brief Interruptions on Task Resumption

Abstract

Research has suggested that the duration of an interruption can affect the time it takes to resume an interrupted task. According to the memory for goals model, goal activation gradually decays over time. Therefore goals that have been suspended for longer will require a greater amount of strengthening and time to retrieve. Whereas most interruptions research has examined interruptions ranging from 5 seconds to several minutes, there are both theoretical reasons and empirical evidence to suggest that interruptions as short as 250 ms can lead to delays in task resumption. The effects of brief interruptions were investigated across two studies. In the first study, participants were interrupted for 250 ms and 5000 ms. In the second study, participants were interrupted for 500 ms, 1000 ms, and 2000 ms. Findings indicated that interruptions as brief as 500 ms can delay resumption. Additionally, resumption delays tended to increase as a function of interruption duration.

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