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Investigating the effectiveness of mental workload as a predictor of opportune moments for interruption

Published:02 April 2005Publication History

ABSTRACT

This work investigates the use of workload-aligned task models for predicting opportune moments for interruption. From models for several tasks, we selected boundaries with the lowest (Best) and highest (Worst) mental workload. We compared effects of interrupting primary tasks at these and Random moments on resumption lag, annoyance, and social attribution. Results show that interrupting at the Best moments consistently caused less resumption lag and annoyance, and fostered more social attribution. Results demonstrate that use of workload-aligned models offers a systematic method for predicting opportune moments.

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        cover image ACM Conferences
        CHI EA '05: CHI '05 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
        April 2005
        1358 pages
        ISBN:1595930027
        DOI:10.1145/1056808

        Copyright © 2005 ACM

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        Association for Computing Machinery

        New York, NY, United States

        Publication History

        • Published: 2 April 2005

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