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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Cognition
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1465323

Opportune moments for task interruptions: Examining the cognitive mechanisms underlying interruption-timing effects

Provisionally accepted
Patricia Hirsch Patricia Hirsch 1*Luca Moretti Luca Moretti 1Benedikt Leichtmann Benedikt Leichtmann 2,3Iring Koch Iring Koch 1Verena Nitsch Verena Nitsch 2
  • 1 Institute of Psychology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
  • 2 Institute of Industrial Engineering and Ergonomics, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
  • 3 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Education, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Bavaria, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The present study aimed to examine the effects of interruption timing on primary-task performance. To this end, participants performed a primary task comprising a pre-defined sequence of six subtasks, with task interruptions occasionally occurring before the second, third, or fourth subtasks. Critically, the subtasks were organized either in two lag-2 repetition triplets or in two lag-2 switch triplets (e.g., ABA-CBC vs. CBA-CAB). This set-up allowed us to test two predictions about the effects of interruption timing on the resumption costs (i.e., the performance in subtasks following an interruption compared to the performance in the same subtask in non-interrupted primary tasks). First, we expected task interruptions before the fourth subtask being the less detrimental due to the presumed chunking of the six subtasks into two triplets. Second, in lag-2 switch triplets, task interruptions before the second and third subtasks were predicted to result in comparable resumption costs. In contrast, in lag-2 repetition triplets, task interruptions before the third subtask were hypothesized to be more disruptive than those before the second subtask. This is because the mental workload should be higher due to the need to overcome subtask inhibition. We found an interruption-timing effect with higher resumption costs for task interruptions occurring before the third subtask compared to interruptions before the second and the fourth subtasks. However, this effect did not differ across lag-2 repetition sequences and lag-2 switch sequences. These findings are discussed from a memory perspective and a context reconstruction perspective.

    Keywords: Task interruption, interruption timing, Interruption duration, chunking, resumption cost

    Received: 16 Jul 2024; Accepted: 18 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Hirsch, Moretti, Leichtmann, Koch and Nitsch. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Patricia Hirsch, Institute of Psychology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

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