Online interruption effect on cognitive performance Eilat Chen Levy* Sheizaf Rafaeli* Yaron Ariel ** * Graduate School of Management & Sagy Center for Internet Research University of Haifa ** Department of Communication, Yezreel Valley College Conference, March 2012, DHBW Mannheim

Presentation Outline Research goals Theoretical frameworks: Media richness & interruptions concept Research questions & assumptions Research design Results & conclusions

Research Goals Evaluating media richness in new media environment Examining interruptions in the context of new media Possible influence of message richness on the quality of cognitive performance

MRT Assumptions Media differ in there richness A medium’s richness is based on four criteria (Daft et al., 1987): Capacity to include personal focus Immediacy of feedback Conveyance of multiple cues Variety of language carried

MRT Criticism  Focus on ‘message richness’ instead of ‘medium richness’  Consequences of media convergence  Quality performance improves when medium richness and the ability of the channel to carry information matched (Daft et al.,1987)

Defining interruption “ an externally generated, randomly occurring, discrete event that breaks continuity of cognitive focus on a primary task “ )Coraggio, 1990)

Questions & hypotheses Can we correlate between time performance and online advertising richness? H1: A significant difference in time performance of cognitive activity will be found between participants who interrupted via 'poor' and 'rich' ads. Can we correlate between quality performance and online advertising richness? H2: A significant difference will be found in the quality performance between participants who interrupted via 'poor' and 'rich' ads.

Methodology Experimental design - post test only with control group “Push” method - transferring information to the participants as a tool for creating an external interruption 144 participants where divided to 5 groups - 4 groups where manipulated with different interruptions (poor & rich) and different media (mobile phone & www) Group #5, the control group - was not interrupted

The sea trader (computerized business game)  Participants experienced a simulation of purchasing and selling goods  Players goal was to make profits by decision making  The game simulated a contest between players  A prize was offered to the player who achieved the highest profits  The computer screen displayed a clock stopper & an interrupted button

Screenshots

Experiment groups Medium Type Mobile Phonewww Internet application Message Richness Poor Message Text Message (SMS) Text Banner Rich Message Picture Message + text (MMS) Picture Banner

Rich & poor messages online ads A “Push” method as a tool for creating an external interruption

[F(4)=3.79, p<0.01] Time duration of simulation by groups H1 is supported

Does interruption made by rich message lead to success in cognitive performance? Level of success in cognitive performance: 1.MMS – multi media message 2.SMS – text message 3.No interruption 4.WWW – Picture Banner 5.WWW – Text Banner Possible Explanation Mark et al.(2008) Compensation faster Walther,(1995) H2 is supported

Message Richness Influence on Cognitive Performance – Considering Time Factor F (4) =2.27, p<0.05)

Results indicate a significant difference between groups average time of fulfilling cognitive task [F(4)=3.79, p<0.01]. Contrary to the assumption of the Media Richness Theory, interruption of 'poor' ads (SMS/Text) leads to a better performance. Results indicate significant differences in cognitive performance (F 4)=2.27, p<0.05) among groups, in the above descending order: non interrupted group; WWW text; SMS; WWW banner; MMS.

Conclusions  Cognitive performance (with no dependence on time) was found higher in interrupted groups via rich message followed by uninterrupted groups  The lowest cognitive performance was found in interrupted groups via poor message  Cognitive performance considering time was found higher in the uninterrupted group or in interrupted groups via poor message compared with interrupted groups via rich message  Time factor has an influence effect on Cognitive performance

Sheizaf Rafaeli Yaron Ariel Eilat Chen Levy