The Effects of Fragmented and Continuous Interruptions on Online Task Performance

Abstract

This study examines the effect of online interruptions on task performance. Two hundred and eighty players played a game designed to simulate an online environment decision-making process. The manipulation was achieved through an intervention design. Participants were exposed to messages in six interruption conditions as they played: (i) slow-fragmented text, (ii) fast-fragmented text, (iii) slow-fragmented image, (iv) fast-fragmented image, (v) continuous text, and (vi) continuous image. We compared text-only interruptions and image interruptions within different rates of interruption. The results indicate that participants with continuous text interruptions display the same performance as those without interruptions; participants who experience fast text interruptions perform the best; participants exposed to slow text interruptions performed poorly on tasks. These results imply the conditions in which controlling the rate and richness of online interruptions could improve task performance.