Investigating interruptions in the context of computerised cognitive testing for older adults.

Interruptions in the home pose a threat to the validity of self-administered computerised cognitive testing. We report the findings of a laboratory experiment investigating the effects of increased interruption workload demand on older adults' computerised cognitive test performance. Related work has reported interruptions having a range of inhibitory and facilitatory effects on primary task performance. Cognitive ageing literature suggests that increased interruption workload demand should have greater detrimental effects on older adults' performance, when compared to younger adults. With 36 participants from 3 age groups (20-54, 55-69, 70+), we found divergent effects of increased interruption demand on two primary tasks. Results suggest that older and younger adults experience interruptions differently, but at no age is test performance compromised by demanding interruptions. This finding is reassuring with respect to the success of a self-administered computerised cognitive assessment test, and is likely to be useful for other applications used by older adults.