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How Compatible is Alexa with Dual Tasking? — Towards Intelligent Personal Assistants for Dual-Task Situations

Previous literature has reported that users consider hands-free and eyes-free interaction as one of the prime features of IPAs (Intelligent Personal Assistants). Hands-free and eyes-free interaction enables dual tasking. Although users prefer dual tasking with IPAs, it is unknown to what degree current IPAs are compatible with dual tasking. To determine IPA efficiency while dual tasking, we investigate cognitive load in dual-task scenarios with IPAs. In our experiment, we selected a rhythm game as the primary task and everyday IPA requests as secondary tasks. The secondary tasks belonged to four common categories: information search, multimedia control, smart home control, and turn-taking conversations. The findings show that IPAs need significant improvement to support dual tasking. Out of the four categories, only tasks in the smart home and multimedia categories were appropriate for dual tasking, whereas turn-taking conversation and information search had a high cognitive load. Task completion time was significantly different between tasks, but the penalty on the accuracy of the primary task was small. In interviews we found that, due to information abundance in IPA responses and high time pressure during task completion, users tended to make several mistakes. Based on our findings and observations we derive four design recommendations that facilitate dual-tasking while using IPAs.