The Effect of Interruptions and Breaks on Insight and Impasses: Do You Need a Break Right Now?

Beeftink, F Flora; Eerde, van W Wendelien; Rutte, CG Christel

doi:10.1080/10400410802391314

Cited by 42 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Contemporary creativity researchers have often studied incubation and its role in creative insight (Beeftink, van Eerde, & Rutte, 2008;Ellwood, Pallier, Snyder, & Gallate, 2009;Kohn & Smith, 2009;Patrick, 1986;Sternberg & Davidson, 1995). The majority of studies has confirmed the existence of an incubation effect, although the exact nature of the associated unconscious processes remains uncertain.…”

Section: Mind Wandering and Incubationmentioning

confidence: 98%

The Cognitive Neuroscience of Creativity: A Critical Review

Sawyer

2011

Creativity Research Journal

210

143

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Section: Mind Wandering and Incubationmentioning

confidence: 98%

The Cognitive Neuroscience of Creativity: A Critical Review

Sawyer

2011

Creativity Research Journal

210

143

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“…We are aware that not all types of work will necessarily show negative effects of multitasking on affective well-being and performance. For instance, it has been shown that for creative tasks, breaks may be beneficial to avoid impasses (Beeftink, Van Eerde, & Rutte, 2008), which suggests that the resumption of tasks may sometimes be beneficial as new ideas emerge and a fresh look is taken at the focal task. Even if the relationships identified in our study would appear among employees in other jobs, in similar work environments, we would not claim that they would extend to work in other (e.g., more dynamic) ecologies and that they would continue to hold in later periods.…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Polychronicity and Multitasking: A Diary Study at Work

2015

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Polychronicity and multitasking have been described as being indispensible in work today because they enable people to use their time flexibly and effectively. We conducted a diary study among 93 employees during the mornings and evenings of 5 consecutive workdays (n = 418 observations). The study used hierarchical linear modeling with polychronicity and other personal characteristics at the person level, and multitasking behavior along with multitasking opportunities, interruptions, and unplanned work as antecedents, and affective well-being and self-rated performance as outcomes at the day level. We found several relations between antecedents and multitasking, as well as between multitasking and consequences. Polychronicity interacts with these relationships, such that polychronic individuals' affective well-being and self-rated performance are less affected on days with much multitasking compared to monochronic individuals.The continuingly changing demands in today's interconnected workplaces, the concentration of multiple duties in the same jobs, and the growing emphasis on speed and flexibility have made multitasking a necessity in the work of many (Appelbaum, Marchionni, & Fernandez, 2008). Current job descriptions often ask for multitasking ability. For example, typing in a job search on Monster.com with the keyword "multitasking" as requirement reveals thousands of hits. Despite the trend of recruiting multitaskers, there has been surprisingly limited research on multitasking in everyday work settings. Previously, multitasking has been conceived as a cognitive ability or as a cognitive process and has mainly been studied in laboratory environments within very short time windows (seconds, minutes). Studies aiming to understand multitasking in everyday work-life are rather scarce, but they are highly needed because of the growing prevalence and significance of multitasking in organizations. Adding to the outcomes of research on multitasking in lab settings, this study contributes to the understanding of multitasking by including the context of a work setting and by examining changes in multitasking and its effects over the course of several days. As far as we are aware, this study is the first study to investigate multitasking in the workplace, looking at variations in multitasking across working days. Our aim is twofold: first, a better understanding of multitasking, its personal and workplace antecedents, and its consequences for performance and affective well-being; second, clarifying the role of polychronicity, Correspondence should be sent to

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“…40 42 51 72 The beneficial effect is not limited to improved task performance, but also extends to better affective states 73 74 and can also be achieved even by having a sense of control rather actual control. 73 Clinicians use different strategies to handle interruptions.…”

Section: Interruption-handling Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Examples include crossword puzzles, 40 mathematical problems, 41 and psychological tasks such as the Tower of London task. 17 18 42 Examples of clinical problemsolving tasks can be found in the emergency department, where doctors are routinely confronted with novel situations: their clinical knowledge might not offer them a direct solution, but provides the basis to work out an appropriate solution.…”

Section: Primary Task Typesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A systematic review of the psychological literature on interruption and its patient safety implications

Li¹,

Magrabi

Coiera

2012

J Am Med Inform Assoc

172

145

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Objective To understand the complex effects of interruption in healthcare. Materials and methods As interruptions have been well studied in other domains, the authors undertook a systematic review of experimental studies in psychology and humanecomputer interaction to identify the task types and variables influencing interruption effects. Results 63 studies were identified from 812 articles retrieved by systematic searches. On the basis of interruption profiles for generic tasks, it was found that clinical tasks can be distinguished into three broad types: procedural, problem-solving, and decision-making. Twelve experimental variables that influence interruption effects were identified. Of these, six are the most important, based on the number of studies and because of their centrality to interruption effects, including working memory load, interruption position, similarity, modality, handling strategies, and practice effect. The variables are explained by three main theoretical frameworks: the activation-based goal memory model, prospective memory, and multiple resource theory. Discussion This review provides a useful starting point for a more comprehensive examination of interruptions potentially leading to an improved understanding about the impact of this phenomenon on patient safety and task efficiency. The authors provide some recommendations to counter interruption effects. Conclusion The effects of interruption are the outcome of a complex set of variables and should not be considered as uniformly predictable or bad. The task types, variables, and theories should help us better to identify which clinical tasks and contexts are most susceptible and assist in the design of information systems and processes that are resilient to interruption.

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The Effect of Interruptions and Breaks on Insight and Impasses: Do You Need a Break Right Now?

Cited by 42 publications

References 23 publications

The Cognitive Neuroscience of Creativity: A Critical Review

The Cognitive Neuroscience of Creativity: A Critical Review

Polychronicity and Multitasking: A Diary Study at Work

A systematic review of the psychological literature on interruption and its patient safety implications

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