Behavioral performance and visual attention in communication multitasking: A comparison between instant messaging and online voice chat

Participants carried out a visual pattern-matching task on a computer while communicating with a confederate either via instant messaging (IM) or online voice chat. Communicating with a confederate led to a 50% drop in visual pattern-matching performance in the IM condition and a 30% drop in the voice condition. Visual fixations on pattern-matching were fewer and shorter during the communication task and a greater loss of fixations was found in the IM condition than the voice condition. The results, examined within a threaded cognition framework, suggest that distributing the work between the audio and visual channels reduces performance degradation. Implications for media literacy and distracted-driving are discussed.

► Distributing work between audio-visual channels reduces performance degradation.
► Communicating via IM led to a 50% drop in a simultaneous visual task performance.
► Communicating via voice phone led to a smaller (30%) drop in the same task.
► A greater loss of eye fixations was found in IM than voice multitasking.