School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Queensland.
J Exp Psychol Appl. 2010 Dec;16(4):317-34. doi: 10.1037/a0021912.
Interruptions are frequent in many work domains. Researchers in health care have started to study interruptions extensively, but their studies usually do not use a theoretically guided approach. Conversely, researchers conducting theoretically rich laboratory studies on interruptions have not usually investigated how effectively their findings account for humans working in complex systems such as intensive care units. In the current study, we use the memory for goals theory and prospective memory theory to investigate which properties of an interruption influence how long it takes nurses to resume interrupted critical care tasks. We collected data with a mobile eye tracker in an intensive care unit and developed multiple regression models to predict resumption times. In 55.8% of all interruptions there was a finite-and therefore analyzable-resumption lag. For these cases, the main regression model explained 30.9% (adjusted R²) of the variance. Longer interruptions (β=.36, p<.001) and changes in physical location due to interruptions (β=.40, p<.001) lengthened the resumption lag. We also calculated regression models on subsets of the data to investigate the generality of the above findings across different situations. In a further 37.6% of all interruptions, nurses used behavioral strategies that greatly diminished or eliminated individual prospective memory demands caused by interruptions, resulting in no analyzable resumption lag. We introduce a descriptive model that accounts for how nurses' behaviors affect the cognitive demand of resuming an interrupted task. Finally, we discuss how the disruptive effects of interruptions in the intensive care unit could be diminished or prevented.
在许多工作领域中，中断现象频繁发生。医疗保健领域的研究人员已经开始广泛研究中断现象，但他们的研究通常没有采用理论指导的方法。相反，从事中断现象理论丰富的实验室研究的研究人员通常没有调查他们的发现如何有效地解释人类在复杂系统（如重症监护病房）中的工作。在当前的研究中，我们使用目标记忆理论和前瞻性记忆理论来研究中断的哪些特性会影响护士重新开始中断的重症监护任务所需的时间。我们使用移动眼动追踪器在重症监护病房中收集数据，并开发了多元回归模型来预测恢复时间。在所有中断中，有 55.8%存在有限的恢复滞后（因此可以进行分析）。对于这些情况，主要回归模型解释了 30.9%（调整后的 R²）的方差。较长的中断时间（β=.36，p<.001）和由于中断导致的物理位置变化（β=.40，p<.001）延长了恢复滞后时间。我们还在数据的子集上计算了回归模型，以调查上述发现在不同情况下的普遍性。在所有中断的另外 37.6%中，护士使用了行为策略，这些策略大大减少或消除了中断引起的个体前瞻性记忆需求，从而没有可分析的恢复滞后。我们引入了一个描述性模型，该模型解释了护士的行为如何影响恢复中断任务的认知需求。最后，我们讨论了如何减少或预防重症监护病房中断的干扰影响。
