Autonomic Nervous System Activity Measurements in the Research Field of Interruption Science: Insights into Applied Methods

The use of Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) activity measurements provides valuable insight into the physiological responses elicited by cognitive and emotional stimuli during human interactions with Information Systems (IS), thereby furthering the development of NeuroIS research. This paper aims to outline the potential for future research efforts by exploring the applicability of such measurements in the field of interruption science. Extending a previous review of neurophysiological measurements in interruption science, our focus is on unraveling the methodological complexity found in the identified papers. Specifically, we provide an overview of the various ANS activity measurements applied in interruption science research. Furthermore, to lay a foundation for understanding the use of such measurements in this research field, we present an example study per measurement (i.e., eye-related, heart-related, skin- or body-related, muscle-related, or respiratory-related measurements), outlining following factors: research objective, research method, sample size, study population, and research results.