Attention, Memory, and Performance

Studies at Microsoft Research on attention, memory, and users' performance and experience.

Attention, Interruption, and Engagement

  • E. Horvitz, A. Jacobs, D. Hovel. Attention-Sensitive Alerting, Proceedings of UAI '99, Conference on Uncertainty and Artificial Intelligence, July 1999, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers: San Francisco. pp. 305-313. Related projects, video

  • E. Horvitz, C. M. Kadie, T. Paek, D. Hovel. Models of Attention in Computing and Communications: From Principles to Applications, Communications of the ACM 46(3):52-59, March 2003. More information.   Video: Directions & futures   Video: Priorities & Notification Platform, photo.

  • E. Horvitz. Principles of Mixed-Initiative User Interfaces. Proceedings of CHI '99, ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Pittsburgh, PA, May 1999. more info, Lookout video, Lookout as star of a TV commercial (1999)

  • S. T. Iqbal and E. Horvitz. Disruption and Recovery of Computing Tasks: Field Study, Analysis, and Directions, Proceedings of CHI 2007, San Jose, California, April 2007.

  • S. Iqbal and E. Horvitz. Conversations Amidst Computing: A Study of Interruptions and Recovery of Task Activity. Proceedings of the Eleventh Conference on User Modeling (UM 2005), June 2007, Corfu, Greece.

  • E. Horvitz, J. Apacible, and P. Koch. BusyBody: Creating and Fielding Personalized Models of the Cost of Interruption, Proceedings of CSCW, Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, ACM Press, November 2004.

  • E. Horvitz and J. Apacible. Learning and Reasoning about Interruption. Proceedings of the Fifth ACM International Conference on Multimodal Interfaces, November 2003, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

  • E. Horvitz, J. Apacible, M. Subramani. Balancing Awareness and Interruption: Investigation of Notification Deferral Policies. Proceedings of the Tenth Conference on User Modeling (UM 2005), July 2005, Edinburgh, Scotland.

  • M. Czerwinski, M., E. Horvitz, and S. Wilhite. A Diary Study of Task Switching and Interruptions, Proceedings of CHI 2004, Human Factors in Computing Systems. Vienna, April 2004.

  • S.T. Iqbal, E. Horvitz, Y. Ju, and E. Mathews, Hang on a Sec! Effects of Proactive Mediation of Phone Conversations while Driving, Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), Vancouver BC, May 2011.

  • S.T. Iqbal, Y.C. Ju, E. Horvitz. Cars, Calls, and Cognition: Investigating Driving and Divided Attention, Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), Atlanta, GA, April 2010.

  • S.T. Iqbal and E. Horvitz. Notifications and Awareness: A Field Study of Alert Usage and Preferences, Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), Savannah, GA, February 2010.

  • M. van Dantzich, D. Robbins, E. Horvitz, M. Czerwinski, Scope: Providing Awareness of Multiple Notifications at a Glance, In: Proceedings of AVI 2002, ACM Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces, Trento, Italy, May 22-24, 2002. ACM Press.

  • E. Cutrell, M. Czerwinski, and E. Horvitz. Notification, Disruption and Memory: Effects of Messaging Interruptions on Memory and Performance. Proceedings of Interact 2001, Tokyo.

  • M. Czerwinski, E. Cutrell, and E. Horvitz. Instant Messaging and Interruption: Influence of Task Type on Performance, Proceedings of OZCHI 2000, Sydney, Australia, December 2000.

  • M. Czerwinski, E. Cutrell, and E. Horvitz. Instant Messaging: Effects of Relevance and Time, In S. Turner, P. Turner (Eds), People and Computers XIV: Proceedings of HCI 2000, Sunderland, UK, September 2000. Vol. 2, British Computer Society, p. 71-76.

  • E. Cutrell, M. Czerwinski, and E. Horvitz. Effects of Instant Messaging Interruptions on Computing Tasks. In Extended Abstracts of CHI ’2000, Human Factors in Computing Systems, The Hague, April 1-6, 2000, ACM press, 99-100. ACM Press.

  • M. Czerwinski and E. Horvitz (2002). An Investigation of Memory for Daily Computing Events. Proceedings of HCI 2002: Sixteenth British HCI Group Annual Conference, London, England, September 2002.

  • M. van Dantzich, D. Robbins, E. Horvitz, M. Czerwinski (2003), Scope: Providing Awareness of Multiple Notifications at a Glance, In: Proceedings of AVI 2002, ACM Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces, Trento, Italy, May 22-24, 2002. ACM Press.

  • S.T. Iqbal, J. Grudin, E. Horvitz, Peripheral computing during presentations: Perspectives on costs and preferences, Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), pp 891 894, Vancouver, BC, May 2011. https://doi.org/10.1145/1978942.1979073

  • S.T. Iqbal, J. Grudin, E. Horvitz, Divided Attention=Diminished Uptake? Multitasking with Computing Devices at Presentations, Microsoft Research Technical Report, MSR-TR-2009-155, November 2009.

  • K. Larson, E. Horvitz, J. Lengyel, M. Czerwinski. Applied Psychophysics: Studies in Support of Perception-Directed Graphics Rendering, Microsoft Research Technical Report, Fall 1997.

  • E. Horvitz and J. Lengyel. Perception, Attention, and Resources: A Decision-Theoretic Approach to Graphics Rendering. Proceedings of the Thirteenth Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence, August 1997, Morgan Kaufman: San Francisco, pp. 238-249.

    Memory and Recall

  • E. Horvitz, S. Dumais, P. Koch. Learning Predictive Models of Memory Landmarks, CogSci 2004: 26th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Chicago, August 2004.

  • M. Sap, A. Jafarpour, Y. Choi, N.A. Smith, J.W. Pennebaker, E. Horvitz. Imagined versus Remembered Stories: Quantifying Differences in Narrative Flows, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 2022.

  • E. Kamar and E. Horvitz, Jogger: Investigation of Principles of Context-Sensitive Reminding, Proceedings of International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2011), Tapei, May 2011.

  • M. Ringel, E. Cutrell, S. Dumais, E. Horvitz. Milestones in Time: The Value of Landmarks in Retrieving Information from Personal Stores. Proceedings of Interact 2003: Ninth International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, September 2003, Z rich, Switzerland.

  • E. Cutrell, M. Czerwinski, and E. Horvitz. Notification, Disruption and Memory: Effects of Messaging Interruptions on Memory and Performance. Proceedings of Interact 2001, Tokyo.

  • Czerwinski, M. and Horvitz, E. An Investigation of Memory for Daily Computing Events. Proceedings of HCI 2002: Sixteenth British HCI Group Annual Conference, London, England, September 2002.

  • S.T. Iqbal, J. Grudin, E. Horvitz, Peripheral computing during presentations: Perspectives on costs and preferences, Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), pp 891 894, Vancouver, BC, May 2011. https://doi.org/10.1145/1978942.1979073

  • S.T. Iqbal, J. Grudin, E. Horvitz, Divided Attention=Diminished Uptake? Multitasking with Computing Devices at Presentations, Microsoft Research Technical Report, MSR-TR-2009-155, November 2009.



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