Cited by 576Personal Information Management and User BehaviorHuman-Automation Interaction and SafetyInteractive and Immersive Displays

Interaction in 4-second bursts: the fragmented nature of attentional resources in mobile HCI

Oulasvirta, Antti, Tamminen, Sakari, Roto, Virpi, Kuorelahti, Jaana·2005·Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

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.

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Crossref · 10.1145/1054972.1055101

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Authors
Oulasvirta, A., Tamminen, S., Roto, V., & Kuorelahti, J.
Affiliations
  • Helsinki Institute for Information Technology (FI)
  • Helsinki University of Technology, Helsinki, Finland
  • Nokia (Finland) (FI)
Venue
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Publisher
ACM
Published
2005-04-02
Pages
919-928
OpenAlex
W2131800446
Cited by
576
References
46
Citations by year
2026: 10 · 2025: 62 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 53 · 2019: 28 · 2018: 24 · 2017: 23 · 2016: 27 · 2015: 34 · 2014: 32 · 2013: 31 · 2012: 35
FWCI
37.79
Type
conference paper
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (publishedVersion)
Funders
Academy of Finland
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Personal Information Management and User Behavior
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Human-Automation Interaction and Safety
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Interactive and Immersive Displays
Keywords
cognitive depletion, attention, task interaction, perceptual sampling, task switching, urban mobility, mobile HCI

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