Abstract:
Theories accounting for the task resumption process following an interruption
have primarily been memory based accounts (Altmann & Trafton, 2002, 2007; Oulasvirta
& Sarrlilouma, 2004). The purpose of this study was to examine the resumption process
at the perceptual level to determine whether spatial memory processes are used to resume
and to determine whether these processes can be directly integrated with an activation-based
theoretical framework of goal memory (Altmann & Trafton, 2002). Based on
previous literature two plausible hypotheses, a retrace hypothesis and a spatial memory
hypothesis, were examined to account for the perceptual processes used to resume an
interrupted task. Six eye movement studies, using two different tasks that varied in task
structure, were conducted to distinguish between these two hypotheses. In Experiments 1
and 4, the pattern of eye movements upon resumption was examined to distinguish
between the retrace and spatial memory hypotheses. In Experiments 2 and 5, an
interrupting task that required spatial working memory resources was shown to be more
disruptive than a non-spatial interrupting task. These results directly implicate spatial
memory in the task resumption process. In Experiments 3 and 6, interruption length was
manipulated to determine whether spatial memory remains intact over longer interruption
lengths. Together, the results of these experiments provide strong support for a spatial
memory mechanism of task resumption that can be directly integrated with the Altmann
and Trafton (2002, 2007) memory for goals theory.
