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Why Do I Keep Interrupting Myself?: Environment, Habit and Self-Interruption

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Abstract

Self-interruptions account for a significant portion of task switching in information-centric work contexts. However, most of the research to date has focused on understanding, analyzing and designing for external interruptions. The causes of self-interruptions are not well understood. In this paper we present an analysis of 889 hours of observed task switching behavior from 36 individuals across three high-technology information work organizations. Our analysis suggests that self-interruption is a function of organizational environment and individual differences, but also external interruptions experienced. We find that people in open office environments interrupt themselves at a higher rate. We also find that people are significantly more likely to interrupt themselves to return to solitary work associated with central working spheres, suggesting that self-interruption occurs largely as a function of prospective memory events. The research presented contributes substantially to our understanding of attention and multitasking in context.
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... External stimuli are related to events originated from the surrounding environment, such as a ringing smartphone drawing our attention from working on a project proposal. Attentional shifts caused by internal stimuli are considered as internal interruptions, whereas external stimuli lead to external interruptions [30,72]. This paper focuses on automated systems that manage external interruptions (e.g., notifications) supporting individuals in maintaining their attention on tasks and activities. ...
... " [72] This definition implies that an interruption affects an individual's current activity, resulting in the loss of attention and the inability to resume the activity where it was interrupted. Interrupting a task means to abandon a current task before finalization and diverting the attention to a new or different task [30]. The definition of interruption is closely related to distraction, which is researched in the field of road safety (see [95] for a review). ...
Preprint
Today's information and communication devices provide always-on connectivity, instant access to an endless repository of information, and represent the most direct point of contact to almost any person in the world. Despite these advantages, devices such as smartphones or personal computers lead to the phenomenon of attention fragmentation, continuously interrupting individuals' activities and tasks with notifications. Attention management systems aim to provide active support in such scenarios, managing interruptions, for example, by postponing notifications to opportune moments for information delivery. In this article, we review attention management system research with a particular focus on ubiquitous computing environments. We first examine cognitive theories of attention and extract guidelines for practical attention management systems. Mathematical models of human attention are at the core of these systems, and in this article, we review sensing and machine learning techniques that make such models possible. We then discuss design challenges towards the implementation of such systems, and finally, we investigate future directions in this area, paving the way for new approaches and systems supporting users in their attention management.
... A related phenomenon, continuous partial attention, has been proposed, as a consequence of information overload in the digital world (Stone 2007). Several factors have been suggested as contributing to this: (1) the intentional design of digital devices and platforms that are made to be highly engaging (Dabbish et al. 2011); (2) an abundance of information available that can create a sense of urgency to stay connected and informed, leading to continuous partial attention and multitasking (Iqbal and Horvitz 2007); (3) continuous distractions during the workday that can have significant effects on perceived workload and stress levels (Sweller 2011); (4) the constant use of digital tools that often implies multitasking can impact the brain's ability to focus and sustain attention, and lead to lower academic achievement (Junco and Cotten 2012). ...
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... Several studies have indicated that notifications can substantially interfere with the work at hand, causing concentration problems and decreased output [3,7,11,17]. Notification frequency, placement, and content type are important variables that affect their impact on reading behavior and outcomes. ...
... The data drawn from 3-month-long observations of 36 workers shows that 49% of average work interruptions observed were self-initiated compared to 51% that were externally initiated, such as phone calls and being visited or talked (González and Mark, 2004;Mark et al., 2005). Interestingly, workers in open office environments had a higher rate of self-initiated interruptions (Dabbish et al., 2011). A study on reading also found that our mind wandering is unintentional and dynamic, and those seemingly concentrated readers are often unaware of their mind wandering (D'Mello and Mills, 2021). ...
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... Interruptions can be triggered either by external nudges or internally. Previous research shows that humans internalize their patterns of interruptions and trigger them without the need of a nudge or an environmental cue [13][17]. This is not a surprise because of the implementation of habit-forming systems. ...
Thesis
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It is possible to design digital spaces that exploit users while the users are unaware of how they are being used to benefit someone else. There are abundant digital means for almost every aspect of human life. To stay in the market, businesses are in the game of seeking continued user attention. In order to take control and leverage the capabilities of technology, it is important to design technology as per the needs of the human mind and resist any exploitation of its limitations. Digital Wellbeing envisions an optimal balance of technology usage to promote work productivity, among other goals to achieving wellbeing. A number of design choices make up today’s ubiquitous UI on smartphones. Traditional smartphone interfaces propagate interruption-driven usage thereby hindering task-driven usage during device launch. We hypothesise that Interruptions and Distractions both lead to Goal Slippage. Our study focuses on the pervasive menu-grid interaction for smartphone app selection and challenges the heuristic design principle ‘Recognition rather than Recall’ that recommends it against plain search. We investigate the phenomenon of Goal Slippage in digital devices through an experiment that captures the extent of Goal Slippage and Loss of Content with the altering presence of external interruptions and distractions. We find that external interruptions have a significant effect on response times, suggesting Goal Slippage, but distractions did not have any effect. However, a wider spread of response time is established during distractions, suggesting disruption if not complete goal slippage. Based on the results, we attempt to design a smartphone launch interface, ‘Focus Mode’ for digital wellbeing backed by a set of design principles.
... One of the most significant factors is the intentional design of digital devices and platforms. Many digital devices and platforms are designed specifically to be highly engaging, using features such as notifications, alerts, personalized content, reminders and gamification to capture, retain and maintain users' attention (Dabbish et al., 2011). These design features can be effective in promoting engagement but can also contribute to attentional overload. ...
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