Work interruptions have a greater impact on older people

In everyday working life, people are often interrupted in their tasks. After the phone has rung, for example, it is difficult to concentrate on the original task again. The selection of working memory content is impaired after an interruption. Observations show that the performance deficit after such task interruptions is often bigger in older people. With the help of EEG evaluations, researchers from the Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors in Dortmund (IfADo) have studied attentional selection during the resumption of primary tasks in younger and older persons in more detail.

Quelle: IDW Informationsdienst Wissenschaft