Media multitasking: How visual cues affect switching behavior

•Central vs peripheral vision differences can drive multitasking media switching.•Low-level visual cues (e.g. motion, luminance) can encourage switches towards media.•High-level perceptual cues (e.g. faces. people) can discourage switching away.•Media breaks (e.g. commercial-to-show, new webpages loading) can drive switching.•Onset of both commercial and show content favor switching towards the computer.

As media multitasking becomes the most common form of entertainment consumption, foundational research is needed to explore actual patterns of multitasking behavior. This work uses direct observation to provide better insight into media multitasking, exploring visual cues that encourage or discourage switching. A first eyetracker study recorded consumer reactions to simultaneous television and webpage media coded on numerous content variables. Consistent with differences between peripheral and central vision, results show that lower-level visual cues (such as motion) were more effective at creating switches towards content, while higher-level perceptual cues (such as faces) were more effective at discouraging switches away. A second naturalistic study observed participants using a computer and television simultaneously, and established that media switching is rapid and constant. Breaks between show-to-commercial or commercial-to-show, or moving between webpages, led to increased switching in the seconds immediately following. Unlike lay theory, both show and commercial onsets favored towards-computer switches, further highlighting the importance of multitasking work that records and establishes baseline behavioral patterns.