The Cognitive and Affective Consequences of Nonlinear Forms of Information Acquisition

Interruptions are a part of everyday life whether in the office, on the Internet, or via the phone. As a result, people are faced with diverting their attention, dealing with the interruption and then refocusing on the task that was interrupted. The goal of this research is to begin to systematically study the cognitive and affective consequences of non-linear forms of information acquisition compared to standard linear forms. Toward this goal we have begun to (1) explore the effect of user control on performance while navigating an information path via web-based information and distributed learning; and, (2) examine the utility of non-linear forms of “instruction” for increasing the ability of people to transfer their learning to new situations.