The Effect of Interruption Similarity in Planning Tasks

Previous research on interruptions generally investigates the effect an interruption has during the execution phase of a task. This paper investigates the effects of interruptions which are similar (a planning interruption) or dissimilar (a non-planning interruption) and are presented during the planning phase of a task. Results confirm that interruptions have similar deleterious effects during planning as they do (as in previous research) during the execution phase of a task. Furthermore, this experiment shows a greater decrease in performance when the interruption is a planning task than when it is a non-planning task. Elements of the Fuzzy Trace Theory (Brainerd & Raina, 1990) are used to explain possible reasons for the differences that we found.