Presentation at NeuroIS 2019 : With the growing use of smartphones in our daily life, mobile multitasking has become a widespread (and often dangerous) behavior. Research on mobile multitasking thus far only focuses on a limited number of IT tasks that can be performed with a smartphone: talking, listening to music, and texting. Thus, we do not know the extent to which these results generalize to other types of mobile multitasking behaviors such as reading while walking and gaming while walking. Also, we do not know the extent to which motor movement through physical space (i.e., walking vs. only standing) affects this phenomena. The current paper reports on an ongoing research that explores these questions. Our preliminary results suggest that mobile and standing multitasking leads to the inability to perceive incoming stimuli. Gaming appears to be the most dangerous mobile multitasking task for pedestrians.

1. Task Switching and
Visual Discrimination
in Pedestrian Mobile
Multitasking:
INFLUENCE OF IT MOBILE TASK TYPE
Pierre-Majorique Léger
Elise Labonté-Lemoyne
Marc Fredette
Ann-Frances Cameron
François Bellavance
Franco Lepore
Jocelyn Faubert
Elise Boissonneault
Audrey Murray
Shang-Lin Chen
Sylvain Sénécal
June 6th
, 2019, NeuroIS 2019, Vienna, Austria
L'humain
au centre
de la mobilité
intelligente
L'humain
au centre
de la mobilité
intelligente
31 mai 2019 | HEC Montréal

2. © Copyright Léger (2019)
Pierre-Majorique Léger, Ph.D.
Lab Serious games to learn
enterprise systems and
business analytics
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Pierre-Majorique_Leger
NSERC-Prompt
Industrial Research Chair
in User Experience
Director ERPsim Lab
Co-direct0r Tech3Lab
pml@hec.ca
GRADUATE STUDIES
POST-DOCTORATE
LABORATORIES FINANCIAL SUPPORT
GUEST PROFESSOR

3. Powered by:
© Copyright Léger et Fredette (2019)

4. 2019
50Scientific articles
and conference
proceedings
8Postdoc
researchers
5PhD Students
21Master
students
10summer
interns
420human subjects
20research
projects

5. Industrial research partners
from a wide range of industries
INSURANCE
ONLINE GROCERY
MEDIA
RAILWAYS
BANKING
AERONAUTICS
LOGISTICS
FINANCE
r partenaire de
PLUSIEURS BOURSES DE RECHERCHE
À TOUS LES NIVEAUX :
chaire_ux.hec.ca
INSCRIVEZ-VOUS COMME
PARTICIPANTS À NOS ÉTUDES :
panel.hec.ca
Organismes subventionnaires :
partenaire de

6. est fier partenaire de
PLUSIEURS BOURSES DE RECHERCHE
À TOUS LES NIVEAUX :
chaire_ux.hec.ca
INSCRIVEZ-VOUS COMME
PARTICIPANTS À NOS ÉTUDES :
panel.hec.ca
est fier partenaire de
Propulsé par : Organismes subventionnaires :

7. Texting while walking:
An expensive switch cost.
A SIGNIFICANT COGNITIVE EFFORT IS REQUIRED TO DIVIDE
OUR ATTENDING WHEN TEXTING WHILE WALKING. THE
MORE THE EFFORT, THE MORE THE ERROR.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001457519302908
Courtemanche, Francois, Elise Labonté-LeMoyne, Pierre-Majorique Léger, Marc
Fredette, Sylvain Senecal, Ann-Frances Cameron, Jocelyn Faubert, and François
Bellavance. “Texting while walking: an expensive switch cost.” Accident Analysis &
Prevention 127 (2019): 1-8.
RESEARCH TEAM:
Pierre-Majorique Léger, Ph.D. (PI)
Ann-Frances Cameron, Ph.D.
Francois Courtemanche, Ph.D.
Jocelyn Faubert,Ph.D.
Marc Fredette, Ph.D.
Elise Labonté-Lemoyne, Ph.D.
Franco Lepore, Ph.D.
Sylvain Sénécal, Ph.D.

8. Research questions
RESEARCH ON MOBILE MULTITASKING THUS FAR
ONLY FOCUSES ON A LIMITED NUMBER OF IT TASKS
THAT CAN BE PERFORMED WITH A SMARTPHONE:
TALKING, LISTENING TO MUSIC, AND TEXTING
Q1:
To what extent to which these results generalize to
other types of mobile multitasking behaviors such as
reading while walking and gaming while walking?
Q2:
To what extent motor movement through physical
space (i.e., walking vs. only standing) affects this
phenomena?

9. PHASE 1
STANDING
PHASE 2
WALKING
A Control (No task) X X
B Reading a document X
C Writing an email X
D Playing Tetris X X
E Group Texting X X
F Individual Texting X
Experimental design
2-FACTOR WITHIN-SUBJECT EXPERIMENT:
POSITION (STANDING VS WALKING)
AND TASK TYPE

10. Methodology
PHASE 1 STANDING:
30 subjects
(14 males, 16 females; ages 21-43,
M = 25.6 years, SD = 5.9 years)
PHASE 2 WALKING:
48 subjects (walking)
(20 males, 28 females; ages 18-46,
M=25.5 years, SD=5.5 years).
Counterbalanced
22 trials per condition
Counterbalanced
40 trials per condition
A
A
B
F
C
C
D
D
E
E
PHASE 1
PHASE 2

11. Methodology
PHASE 1 STANDING:
30 subjects
(14 males, 16 females; ages 21-43,
M = 25.6 years, SD = 5.9 years)
PHASE 2 WALKING:
48 subjects (walking)
(20 males, 28 females; ages 18-46,
M=25.5 years, SD=5.5 years).
or
x40
1000 ms
+/- 500 ms
left right
4 m from participants
Height of 1.80 m

12. Instrumentation
and Measures
▪▪ Smart phone : iPhone 6s (Apple, USA)
▪▪ EEG: 32 Ag-AgCl preamplified electrodes mounted
on the actiCap and with a brainAmp amplifier
(Brainvision, Morrisville)
▪▪ Threadmill : iMovR’s ThermoTread GT (iMovR, USA)
▪▪ Projector : 1280 x 1024 pixels using a projector
(ViewSonic, Brea, California, United States)
▪▪ Analysis : EEGLAB (San Diego, USA) and Brainvision
(Morrisville, USA)

13. TASK NAME
PHASE 1
STANDING
PHASE 2
WALKING
A Reading a document 80,6% -
B Writing an email 76,6% -
C Playing Tetris 66,6%1
80,8%2
D Group Texting 70,4%1
84,0%
E Individual Texting - 85,4%
F Control (No task) 82,1% 89,1%
Behavioral results
2-FACTOR WITHIN-SUBJECT EXPERIMENT:
POSITION (STANDING VS WALKING)
AND TASK TYPE
1
significantly lower than the control task;
2
significantly lower than the individual texting task;

14. Next steps
▪▪ Investigate the role of smartphone addiction
proneness on the task-switching cost of using
a smartphone while walking.
▪▪ Understand the relationship between stress and
the usage of smartphone while walking, as well
as the impact of stress on the task-switching
costs.
▪▪ Investigate the effect of smart watch usage on
pedestrian and vehicular behavior.