EEG Correlates of Cognitive Dynamics in Task Resumption After Interruptions: The Impact of Available Time and Flexibility

Abstract

Interruptions are a common aspect of everyday working life, negatively affecting both task performance and long-term psychological well-being. However, research suggests that the effects of interruptions can be mitigated in several ways, such as the opportunity to anticipate the interruptions and preparation time. Here, we used a retrospective visual working memory task to investigate the effects of duration and flexible resumption after interruptions, with 28 participants (18–30 years old) attending the experiment. For this main task participants were required to remember the orientations of a set of coloured bars and retrieve one at the end of the trial in response to a retro-cue. This task was sometimes interrupted with an arithmetic task that was presented before the retro-cue. The period after the interruptions and the retro-cue was either short (no additional time), long (additional 1000 ms), or self-determined. Interruptions affected the main task performance irrespective of duration condition, but response times were shorter with the flexible condition. EEG analysis showed that having more time before resuming the interrupted task enabled stronger beta suppression which in turn modulated task performance, helping participants to safely disengage from the interrupting task, and refocus their attention back more efficiently. Further, flexibility in the timing of resumption provided additional benefits as seen in stronger oscillatory alpha and beta suppression to the retro-cue, also being related to better task performance. These results demonstrate the important role of resumption time and individual flexibility in dealing with interruptions.