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

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

Preference Differences Between Micro- and Macrotasks

- 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


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