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An Experiment Assessing the Sequential Difficulty Effect on IT Tasks

ABSTRACT This paper determines whether the “sequential difficulty effect” or SDE holds for complex information technology tasks. The SDE hypothesizes that users will perform worse on an easy task when given a difficult task first, as compared to when subjects are given an easy task first followed a difficult one. The experiment compares how business professionals perform a series of related BI tasks of varying difficulty. The task sequence was controlled in the experiment. The results did not support the SDE and indicate that the SDE might not be generalizable to more complex tasks. One significant difference in overall user performance was found for those who were presented with the most difficult task first and who successfully completed it. This finding supports the concept of “resource engagement” whereby the cognitive resources employed for the difficult task carry over into the following tasks for certain individuals.