title: The interruptive effect of pain in a multitask environment: an experimental investigation.
abstract: Daily life is characterized by the need to stop, start, repeat, and switch between multiple tasks. Here, we experimentally investigate the effects of pain, and its anticipation, in a multitask environment. Using a task-switching paradigm, participants repeated and switched between 3 tasks, of which 1 predicted the possible occurrence of pain. Half of the participants received low intensity pain (N = 30), and half high intensity pain (N = 30). Results showed that pain interferes with the performance of a simultaneous task, independent of the pain intensity. Furthermore, pain interferes with the performance on a subsequent task. These effects are stronger with high intensity pain than with low intensity pain. Finally, and of particular importance in this study, interference of pain on a subsequent task was larger when participants switched to another task than when participants repeated the same task.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This article is concerned with the interruptive effect of pain on people's task performance by using an adapted task-switching paradigm. This adapted paradigm may offer unique possibilities to investigate how pain interferes with task performance while people repeat and switch between multiple tasks in a multitask environment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. Dimitri.VanRyckeghem@ugent.be
authors.forename: Dimitri M L
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Van Ryckeghem
authors.forename: Geert
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Crombez
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Eccleston
authors.forename: Baptist
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Liefooghe
authors.forename: Stefaan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Van Damme
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000209:etiology*; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010146:Pain / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology*; D017288:Pain Threshold / Q000502:physiology*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D055815:Young Adult