Taking a break in response to pain : an experimental investigation of the effects of interruptions by pain on subsequent activity resumption

Abstract Background and aims Interrupting ongoing activities with the intention to resume them again later is a natural response to pain. However, such interruptions might have negative consequences for the subsequent resumption and performance of the interrupted activity. Activity interruptions by pain may be more impairing than interruptions by non-painful stimuli, and also be subjectively experienced as such. These effects might be more pronounced in people high in pain catastrophizing. These hypotheses were investigated in two experiments. Methods In Experiment 1, healthy volunteers (n = 24) performed an ongoing task requiring a sequence of joystick movements. Occasionally, they received either a painful electrocutaneous or a non-painful vibrotactile stimulus, followed by suspension of the ongoing task and temporary engagement in a different task (interruption task). After performing the interruption task for 30 s, participants resumed the ongoing task. As the ongoing task of Experiment 1 was rather simple, Experiment 2 (n = 30) included a modified, somewhat more complex version of the task, in order to examine the effects of activity interruptions by pain. Results Participants made more errors and were slower to initiate movements (Experiment 1 &amp; 2) and to complete movements (Experiment 2) when they resumed the ongoing task after an interruption, indicating that interruptions impaired subsequent performance. However, these impairments were not larger when the interruption was prompted by painful than by non-painful stimulation. Pain catastrophizing did not influence the results. Conclusions Results indicate that activity interruptions by pain have negative consequences for the performance of an activity upon its resumption, but not more so than interruptions by non-painful stimuli. Potential explanations and avenues for future research are discussed. Implications Interrupting ongoing activities is a common response to pain. In two experiments using a novel paradigm we showed that activity interruptions by pain impair subsequent activity resumption and performance. However, this effect seems to not be specific to pain. </jats:sec

Diminished Control in Crowdsourcing: An Investigation of Crowdworker Multitasking Behavior

Obtaining high-quality data from crowds can be difficult if contributors do not give tasks sufficient attention. Attention checks are often used to mitigate this problem, but, because the roots of inattention are poorly understood, checks often compel attentive contributors to complete unnecessary work. We investigated a potential source of inattentiveness during crowdwork: multitasking. We found that workers switched to other tasks every five minutes, on average. There were indications that increasing switch frequency negatively affected performance. To address this, we tested an intervention that encouraged workers to stay focused on our task after multitasking was detected. We found that our intervention reduced the frequency of task-switching. It also improves on existing attention checks because it does not place additional demands on workers who are already focused. Our approach shows that crowds can help to overcome some of the limitations of laboratory studies by affording access to naturalistic multitasking behavior

Home is Where the Lab is: A Comparison of Online and Lab Data From a Time-sensitive Study of Interruption

While experiments have been run online for some time with positive results, there are still outstanding questions about the kinds of tasks that can be successfully deployed to remotely situated online participants. Some tasks, such as menu selection, have worked well but these do not represent the gamut of tasks that interest HCI researchers. In particular, we wondered whether long-lasting, time-sensitive tasks that require continuous concentration could work successfully online, given the confounding effects that might accompany the online deployment of such a task. We ran an archetypal interruption experiment both online and in the lab to investigate whether studies demonstrating such characteristics might be more vulnerable to a loss of control than the short, time-insensitive studies that are representative of the majority of previous online studies. Statistical comparisons showed no significant differences in performance on a number of dimensions. However, there were issues with data quality that stemmed from participants misunderstanding the task. Our findings suggest that long-lasting experiments using time-sensitive performance measures can be run online but that care must be taken when introducing participants to experimental procedures

Effects of External and Internal Task-switching upon Idea Generation Performance

학위논문 (석사)-- 서울대학교 대학원 : 심리학과 인지심리학, 2016. 2. 박주용.Multi-tasking pervades in our daily lives. We are handling more than two tasks at the same time. In a situation where more than two tasks are to be carried out within a set amount of time, there are mainly two reasons why a person switches from one task to another. In one instance, switching occurs because of external circumstances regardless of the intent of performers, such as the close of the set time. In the other, switching occurs because the performer gets bored or can no longer concentrate on the task. This study was carried out to examine how these two types of task switching affect idea generation. Two idea generation tasks were presented to different groups under various conditions. For each task participants were allowed to use for 12 min. In the control group (n=25), participants were instructed to tackle the two tasks one at a time (Task A then Task B). There were two experimental conditions: in the external task switching condition, participants were obliged to alternate the two tasks sequentially for 12 min each (Task A, Task B, Task A, Task B)In the internal switch condition, participants were allowed to switch the two tasks whenever they want to within 24 minutes for each task. The number and the quality of the ideas were rated by two graders who were not informed about the purpose of the study. The results showed that the quality of the ideas was lower for the external task switching condition than that for the control condition. However, the performance of the internal task switching group was superior to that of the control condition. Subsequent analysis showed that the increase in the number of switching resulted in lower performance even in case of the group who were given the choice when to switch. In conclusion, the results showed that performance improves when task switching choice is allowed but that too many switches have a negative influence on performance. Possible applications of these results were discussed.INTRODCTION 1 Interruption and Switch Cost 5 Task Switch and Incubation Effect 8 Switch Cost and Problem State 12 Switch Frequency 15 Current Study 16 METHOD 19 Participants 19 Materials 19 Procedure 20 Measures 23 RESULTS 24 Task Performance 24 Switch Frequency and Task Performance 26 DISCUSSION 28 Limitations and Future Direction 31 Implications 32 References 35 Appendices 46 Appendix A 실험에서 사용하는 자극 46 Appendix B 설문지 47 Abstract in Korean 50Maste

Chat-layoutin vaikutus käytettävyyteen asiakaspalvelussa usean samanaikaisen keskustelun aikana

Over the last few years, chat has become an important channel in customer service. The demand for chat as a customer service channel is constantly growing, as more and more customers require real time help during their visits on companies’ websites. This demand highlights the importance of chat agents’ ability to handle multiple simultaneous chats at a time. However, it has been proven by numerous studies, that multitasking has decreasing effects on performance. On the other hand, studies have shown that those effects can be decreased with different user interface design decisions. This thesis studies how user interface layout of a customer service chat system affects usability in chat multitasking. The research problem is addressed by conducting an experiment, where two popular customer service chat layouts are compared: In the first, windowed layout, all simultaneous chat windows are shown for the user at a time. In the second, tabbed layout, only one conversation is shown for the user at a time. In addition, differences between having either three or four simultaneous chats are investigated. The results indicate that the windowed layout was faster in terms of efficiency, when first response time was measured. Other aspects of efficiency, measured as question response time and chat duration, did not differ between the layouts. However, when the chat amount was increased from three to four, it was found that the stress level increased considerably in the windowed layout. All aspects of efficiency decreased in both layouts when the amount of simultaneous chats was increased from three to four. However, increasing the chat amount did not affect any other satisfaction measures than the perceived stress level. Because the response time for actual questions or preference between the layouts did not differ, both layouts can be suggested to be used in chat agent user interface. Slightly better choice would be the windowed layout, if first responses are wanted to be fast. However, the amount of visible chat windows should be considered carefully, to avoid increase in stress levels.Muutaman viime vuoden aikana chatista on tullut tärkeä kanava asiakaspalvelussa. Tarve chatille asiakaspalvelukanavana kasvaa jatkuvasti, kun yhä useammat asiakkaat vaativat reaaliaikaista apua vieraillessaan yritysten nettisivuilla. Tämä tarve korostaa usean yhtäaikaisen chatin käsittelyn kyvyn tärkeyttä. Monet tutkimukset ovat kuitenkin osoittaneet, että usean asian tekeminen samaan aikaan laskee suorituskykyä. Toisaalta, tutkimukset ovat osoittaneet, että suorituskyvyn laskua voidaan ehkäistä erilaisilla käyttöliittymäratkaisuilla. Tämä diplomityö tutkii asiakaspalvelu-chat-järjestelmän käyttöliittymän layoutin vaikutusta käytettävyyteen usean samanaikaisen keskustelun aikana. Tutkimusongelmaa tarkastellaan kokeella, jossa vertaillaan kahta yleisesti käytössä olevaa asiakaspalvelu-chat-layoutia: Ensimmäisessä layoutissa kaikki käynnissä olevat keskusteluikkunat näytetään käyttäjälle samaan aikaan. Toisessa layoutissa käyttäjälle näytetään vain yksi keskustelu kerrallaan. Kokeessa tutkitaan myös eroja kolmen ja neljän samanaikaisen chat-keskustelun välillä. Tulosten perusteella vastausaika ensimmäiseen viestiin oli nopeampi ensimmäisellä layoutilla. Muut tehokkuuden mittarit eivät eronneet layoutien välillä. Kun samanaikaisten keskustelujen määrää kasvatettiin kolmesta neljään, stressin määrä kasvoi kuitenkin merkittävästi ensimmäisessä layoutissa, mutta ei toisessa layoutissa. Kaikki tehokkuuden mittarit laskivat, kun samanaikaisten keskustelujen määrä nostettiin kolmesta neljään. Samanaikaisten keskustelujen määrä ei kuitenkaan vaikuttanut tyytyväisyyden mittareihin muiden kuin stressin osalta. Koska vastausaika varsinaisiin kysymyksiin ei eronnut layoutien välillä, ja yhtä moni ihminen piti enemmän ensimmäisestä kuin toisestakin layoutista, kumpaakin layoutia voidaan suositella käytettäväksi chat-asiakaspalvelijan käyttöliittymässä. Jos vastausajan nopeus ensimmäiseen viestiin on tärkeä, ensimmäinen layout saattaa olla hieman parempi vaihtoehto. Samaan aikaan näkyvien chat-ikkunoiden määrä kannattaa kuitenkin valita tarkkaan, jotta stressin taso ei nousisi liikaa