Does Affect Mediate Information Overload? A Dissertation in Progress

The problem of information overload and ways to reduce it has been the focus of many researchers in the MIS literature (e.g. Yang et al. 2003, Farhoomand and Drury 2002, Lau et al. 2001, Chan 2001, Lin 2000, Grisé and Gallupe 1999, Tuttle and Burton 1999, Mendelson and Pillai 1998, Iselin 1989). The technological advances of the past few decades in the field of computer science and information technology have made it possible to make large volumes of data available anyplace anytime. Although Information Technology (IT) has been instrumental in improving the flow of information it has been also instrumental in creating an overload of this same information for businesses and organizations (Farhoomand and Drury 2002, Mendelson and Pillai 1998). For example, the results of a recent survey of managers in a variety of industries shows that the majority of managers are faced with the problem of information overload on regular basis and complained that information overload has negative effects on their work (Farhoomand and Drury 2002). My dissertation is motivated by the ubiquitous nature and continually growing magnitude of the information overload problem. In this work, I intend to investigate the problem of information overload from a cognitive point of view.