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document
Not Now ! Supporting interruption management by indicating the modality and urgency of pending tasks . Operators in complex event-driven domains must coordinate competing attentional demands in the form of multiple tasks and interactions . This study examined the extent to which this requirement can be supported more effectively through informative interruption cueing ( in this case , partial information about the nature of pending tasks ) . The 48 participants performed a visually demanding air traffic control ( ATC ) task . They were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 experimental groups that differed in the availability of information ( not available , available upon request , available automatically ) about the urgency and modality of pending interruption tasks . Within-subject variables included ATC-related workload and the modality , frequency , and priority of interruption tasks . The results show that advance knowledge about the nature of pending tasks led participants to delay visual interruption tasks the longest , which allowed them to avoid intramodal interference and scanning costs associated with performing these tasks concurrently with ATC tasks . The 3 experimental groups did not differ significantly in terms of their interruption task performance ; however , the group that automatically received task-related information showed better ATC performance , thus experiencing a net performance gain . Actual or potential applications of this research include the design of interfaces in support of attention and interruption management in a wide range of event-driven environments .
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Intervention_Other
visually demanding air traffic control ( ATC ) task
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Intervention_Educational
.
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Intervention_Educational
availability of information ( not available , available upon request , available automatically
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Intervention_Other
ATC-related workload
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Intervention_Other
modality , frequency , and priority of interruption tasks
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Outcome_Physical
ATC-related workload and the modality , frequency , and priority of interruption tasks .
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Outcome_Physical
interruption task performance
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Participant_Sample-size
48
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Participant_Condition
visually demanding air traffic control ( ATC ) task