- There are no significant differences between interrupted and uninterrupted microtasks in terms of time
- Interrupted macrotasks take longer than uninterrupted macrotasks, but the statistical difference is not significant for all types of macrotasks
- Overall, there are no time differences in interrupted and uninterrupted microtasks because microtasks are inherently shorter
- No significant differences in accuracy are observed between interrupted and uninterrupted micro- and macrotasks


Davidson College

Differences have been noted in terms of performance between microtasks and macrotasks. These are related to the time taken to complete them, their quality/accuracy, and the workers' preferences. There are also differences in the effects of interruption on micro- and macrotasks.


Performance Differences In Micro- and Macrotasks

Cheng, J., Teevan, J., Iqbal, S. T., & Bernstein, M. S. (2015). Break it down: A comparison of macro-and microtasks. In Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 4061-4064).

Break It Down: A Comparison of Macro- and Microtasks

- Generally, microtasks take longer than macrotasks
- However, that pattern has not been observed in transcription tasks


Time Differences Between Micro- and Macrotasks

- Microtasks lead to fewer errors as compared to macrotasks
- This may be due to the extra amount of work that is required to complete microtasks, which facilitates people's mental processes

Quality/Accuracy Differences Between Micro- and Macrotasks

- People tend to prefer microtasks
- People tend to consider microtaks easier

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