Title
Understanding the Impact of Interruptions on Knowledge Work: An Exploratory Neuroimaging Study.
Abstract
This paper explores how technologies can interrupt concentration, focus and attention of knowledge workers. The mechanisms by which an interruption takes attention away and the task performance decreases are unknown. The paper explores this impact of interruptions through neuroimaging. Subjects were given a reading task and subjected to a series of randomly timed audio interruptions. Using an EEG measurement device, we recorded their brain waves. Consistent with the literature, we found interruptions significantly increased task completion time and decreased task performance. We found activities in the frontal and temporal lobes of the participants changed or increased due to interruptions. In addition, increased activities in the frontal regions after an interruption appear to lead to better performance. The results suggest application developers to consider underlying mechanisms of processing interruptions.
Year
DOI
Venue
2016
10.1109/HICSS.2016.87
HICSS
Keywords
Field
DocType
cognition,electroencephalography,medical signal processing,neurophysiology,EEG measurement device,brain wave recording,frontal lobes,knowledge work,neuroimaging,randomly timed audio interruptions,reading task performance,task completion time,temporal lobes,NeuroIS,cognitive neuroscience,electroencephalogram (EEG),interruptions,knowledge work,neuroimaging
Interrupt,Cognitive neuroscience,Computer science,Cognitive psychology,Knowledge management,Neuroimaging,Frontal regions,Task completion,Electroencephalography,Brain waves,Temporal lobe
Conference
ISSN
Citations 
PageRank 
1060-3425
2
0.37
References 
Authors
12
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Pankush Kalgotra120.37
Ramesh Sharda2106398.91
Roger McHaney311617.47