Dual-Tasking Effects on Outcomes of Mobile Communication Technologies

Doing something else while conversing on a mobile phone, known as dual-tasking, has been shown to impact both task performance and communication quality. The current study presents a pilot test and an experiment that together extend previous research on mobile communication technologies by scrutinizing dual-tasking and channel selection impacts on a variety of communication variables. Taken together, over 200 subjects were asked to perform a cognitively taxing task while interacting by phone, text, or face-to-face. Results showed significantly diminished task ability, and significant channel differences emerged in participants' perceptions of the other conversant, conversational comfort, communication satisfaction, message complexity, conversational recall, and task recall. Results discuss dual-tasking's impact on communicative and task performances.