Systematic micro-breaks affect concentration during cognitive comparison tasks: quantitative and qualitative measurements

Abstract

An approach to improve workers’ productivity performance without neglecting their well-being should be investigated. To elucidate the effects of systematic micro-break on intellectual concentration performance, a controlled laboratory experiment generated 31 participants’ data when each participant was performing cognitive comparison tasks. Systematic micro-break was given for 20 s after 7.5 min of cognitive work, for a total of 25 min of work tasks. Each participant performed the task under both conditions with and without micro-break intervention in a counterbalanced design. Two quantitative evaluations were made: the answering time and concentration time ratio. A subjective symptom questionnaire and the NASA task load index were applied for analytical consideration. The average answering time indicates that the performance under the influence of micro-break tends to be more stable over time and that it mitigates performance degradation compared to the performance in a condition without micro-break. For concentration time ratio scores, no significant difference was found between conditions with micro-break and without micro-break. However, a tendency was apparent by which the concentration time ratio score was higher in a condition with micro-break, which suggests higher cognitive performance. The subjective symptoms questionnaire indicated no significant difference between conditions with and without micro-break. Weighted NASA task load index questionnaire results indicated significant difference between both conditions with lower workload scores in conditions with micro-break. Results obtained from this study suggest that the implementation of systematic micro-break can support workers’ performance stability over time. Therefore, systematic micro-break can be promoted as a promising strategy for work recovery.