The effect of emotional interruptions on performance during cognitive complex tasks

A phenomenon quite common in daily mental work is the occurrence of an interruption, for example a telephone call or someone entering the room. We studied how workers deal with interruption-related emotions. In a laboratory experiment, 30 students were interrupted by a neutral or an emotional (positive or negative) message about their achievements. Both the task performance process, its outcomes, and several underlying psychophysiologicaI processes were measured. The results indicated that especially negative interruptions affect performance. It is suggested that when these effects can no longer be compensated, stress and stress-related diseases can occur. To prevent stress, training-on-the-task as well as interruptions-free working periods are advised.