ABSTRACT
When on the move, cognitive resources are reserved partly for passively monitoring and reacting to contexts and events, and partly for actively constructing them. The Re-source Competition Framework (RCF), building on the Multiple Resources Theory, explains how psychosocial tasks typical of mobile situations compete for cognitive resources and then suggests that this leads to the depletion of resources for task interaction and eventually results in the breakdown of fluent interaction. RCF predictions were tested in a semi-naturalistic field study measuring attention during the performance of assigned Web search tasks on mobile phone while moving through nine varied but typical urban situations. Notably, we discovered up to eight-fold differentials between micro-level measurements of atten-tional resource fragmentation, for example from spans of over 16 seconds in a laboratory condition dropping to bursts of just a few seconds in difficult mobile situations. By cali-brating perceptual sampling, reducing resources from tasks of secondary importance, and resisting the impulse to switch tasks before finalization, participants compensated for the resource depletion. The findings are compared to previous studies in office contexts. The work is valuable in many areas of HCI dealing with mobility.
- Baddeley, A. D. and Hitch, G. J. Working memory. In G. Bower (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation, Vol. VIII. Academic Press, NY, 1974, 47--89.Google Scholar
- Bannon, L., Cypher, A., Greenspan, S. and Monty, M.L. Evaluation and analysis of users' activity organization. In Proc. CHI'83, ACM Press (1983), 54--57. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Bellotti, V. and Bly, S.A. Walking away from the desk-top computer: Distributed collaboration and mobility in a product design team. In Proc. of CSCW'96, ACM Press (1996), 279--286. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Card, S. Moran, T. and Newell, A. The psychology of human-computer interaction. Lawrence Erlbaum, 1983. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Cook, T.D. and Campbell, D. Quasi-experimentation: Design and analysis issues for field settings. Rand McNally, 1979.Google Scholar
- Cowan, N. The magical number 4 in short-term memory: A reconsideration of mental storage capacity. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24, 1 (2001), 87--185.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Czerwinski, M., Horvitz, E. and Wilhite, S. A diary study of task switching and interruptions. In Proc. CHI'04, ACM Press (2004), 175--182. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Deci, E.L. and Ryan, R.M. Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. Plenum Press, New York, 1985.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Dourish, P. Where the Action Is: The Foundations of Embodied Interaction. MIT Press, Cambridge, 2001. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Ericsson, K. A. and Kintsch, W. Long-term working memory. Psychological Review, 102 (1995), 211--245.Google ScholarCross Ref
- González, V.M. and Mark, G. "Constant, constant, multi-tasking craziness": managing multiple working spheres. In Proc. CHI'04, ACM Press (2004), 113--120. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Goodwin, C. and Duranti, A. Rethinking context: an in-troduction. In A. Duranti & C. Goodwin (Eds.), Rethinking Context: Language as an Interactive Phenomenon. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK, 1992, 1--42.Google Scholar
- Harris, J. and Wilkins, A.J. Remembering to do things: A theoretical framework and illustrative experiment. Human Learning, 1 (1982), 1--14.Google Scholar
- Hutchins, E. Cognition in the Wild. MIT Press, Cronbridge, MA, 1995.Google Scholar
- Kjeldskov J., Skov M. B., Als B. S. and Høegh R. T. Is it worth the hassle? Exploring the added value of evaluating the usability of context-aware mobile systems in the field. In Proc. Mobile HCI 2004, 61--73.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Kristoffersen, S. and Ljunberg, F. Making place to make it work: Empirical exploration of HCI for mobile CSCW. In Proc. GROUP'99, ACM Press (1999). Google ScholarDigital Library
- Kulomäki J. and Summala H. Multitasking and Attentional Demands in Pedestrian Behaviour - A Review. Dep. of Psychology, Univ. of Helsinki. 30.6.2004.Google Scholar
- Lumsden, J. and Brewster, S. A paradigm shift: Alternative interaction techniques for use with mobile & wearable devices. In Proc. CASCON'03, 2003. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Navon, D. and Gopher, D. On the economy of the human-processing system. Psychological Review, 86 (1979), 214--255.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Oulasvirta, A. and Salovaara, A. A cognitive meta-analysis of design approaches to interruptions in intelligent environments. Ext. Abstracts CHI'04, ACM Press (2004), 1155--1158. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Oulasvirta, A. and Tamminen, S. Temporal tensions in human-computer interaction. CHI'04 Workshop on Temporal Aspects of Work, 2004.Google Scholar
- Oulasvirta, A. Task-processing demands and memory in web interaction: A levels-of-processing approach. Interacting with Computers, 16, 2 (2004), 217--241.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Oulasvirta, A. Human-computer interaction in mobile context: a cognitive resources perspective. Licentiate Thesis, Cognitive Science, Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, 2004. Available from http://ethesis.helsinki.fi.Google Scholar
- Oviatt, S., Coulston, R. and Lunsford, R. When do we interact multimodally? Cognitive load and multimodal communication patterns. In Proc. ICMI 2004, 129--136. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Pascoe, J., Ryan, N. and Morse, D. Using while moving: HCI issues in fieldwork environments. ACM TOCHI, 7, 3 (2000), 417--137. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Pashler, H. Dual-task interference and elementary mental mechanisms. In D. Meyer & S. Kornblum (Eds.), Attention and performance XIV. MIT Press, MA, 1993. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Perry, M., O'Hara, K., Sellen, A., Brown, B. and Harper, R. Dealing with mobility: understanding access any anytime, anywhere. ACM TOCHI, 8, 4 (2001), 323--347. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Rogers, Y. New Theoretical approaches for Human-Computer Interaction. Annual Review of Information, Science and Technology, 38 (2004), 87--143.Google Scholar
- Roto, V., Oulasvirta, A., Haikarainen, T., Kuorelahti, J., Lehmuskallio, H. and Nyyssonen, T. Examining mobile phone use in the wild with quasi-experimentation. HIIT Technical Report 2004-1, 2004. www.hiit.fi/publicationsGoogle Scholar
- Roto, V. and Oulasvirta, A. Need for non-visual feed-back with long response times in Mobile HCI. A full paper submitted to WWW 2005, May 10--14, Japan. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Sacks, H., Schegeloff, E.A. and Jefferson, G. A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking conversation. Language, 50 (1974), 696--735.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Sawhney, N. and Schmandt, C. Nomadic radio: speech & audio interaction for contextual messaging in nomadic environments.ACM TOCHI 7,3 (2000), 353--383. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Suchman, L.A. Plans and situated actions: The problem of human-machine communications. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1987. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Tamminen, S., Oulasvirta, A., Toiskallio, K. and Kankainen, A. Understanding mobile contexts. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 8, 2 (2004), 135--143. Google ScholarCross Ref
- Vertegaal, R. Attentive user interfaces. Communications of the ACM, 46, 3 (2003), 31--33. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Weiser, M. The computer for the twenty-first century. Scientific American, 1991, 94--104.Google Scholar
- Welford, A.T. The psychological refractory period and the timing of high speed performance-A review and a theory. British Journal of Psychology, 43 (1952), 2--19.Google Scholar
- Wickens, C.D. Processing resources in attention. In R. Parasuraman and R. Davies (Eds.), Varieties of Attention. Academic Press, New York, 1984.Google Scholar
- Young, M.S. and Stanton, N.S. Malleable attentional resources theory: a new explanation for the effects of mental underload on performance. Human Factors, 44, 3 (2002), 365--375.Google ScholarCross Ref
Index Terms
- Interaction in 4-second bursts: the fragmented nature of attentional resources in mobile HCI
Recommendations
Studying and tackling temporal challenges in mobile HCI
CHI EA '10: CHI '10 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing SystemsIn this paper, I present the idea of receptivity as a broader concept than interruptibility alongside empirical studies of receptivity to interruptions on mobile devices in naturalistic settings, and a methodology based around experience-sampling in ...
Integrating knowledge of multitasking and interruptions across different perspectives and research methods
Multitasking and interruptions have been studied using a variety of methods in multiple fields (e.g., HCI, cognitive science, computer science, and social sciences). This diversity brings many complementary insights. However, it also challenges ...
Not Merely Deemed as Distraction: Investigating Smartphone Users’ Motivations for Notification-Interaction
CHI '23: Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing SystemsNotifications are commonly considered a distraction when they arrive during a task, and consequently, prior research has consistently sought effective ways of deferring their arrival until task transitions. However, many smartphone users still interact ...
Comments