ABSTRACT
In this chapter we apply the concepts from Chapter 2 in building an Emotional-Cognitive Overload Model (ECOM). We demonstrate how the ECOM adds three concepts from cognitive psychology that are missing or under-represented in the previous research on overload carried out in business disciplines, especially management information systems: (1) memory architecture and schemata; (2) pertinence; and (3) emotions. Two critical problems also need to be addressed in order to understand the phenomena of IT-related overload as it relates to information overload: (1) the ‘Amount Illusion’ and (2) ‘Contingency Boundedness’. We argue that overload is not just a function of the amount of information swirling around us in our digital world.
