Exploring self-interruptions as a strategy for regaining the attention of distracted users

In this paper we present a first exploratory study investigating the effects of a contingently self-interrupting vs non-self-interrupting virtual agent in a smart home environment who transmits information to a human interaction partner. We tested the hypothesis that self-interruptions are a strategy for keeping the user's attention, as measured by post-interaction information recall. Interestingly, our experiment does not allow us to confirm this hypothesis. In fact, users found the self-interruption strategy to be less-likeable. From our observations, we draw suggestions for future implementations of attention-retainment strategies.