A Psychophysiological Assessment of Operator Workload During Simulated Flight Missions

Abstract

Previous research has indicated that components of the event-related potential (ERP) may be used to quantify the resource requirements of complex cognitive tasks. The present study was designed to explore the degree to which these results could be generalized to complex, real-world tasks. The study also examined the relations among performance-based, subjective, and psychophysiological measures of operator workload. Seven male volunteers, enrolled in an instrument flight rule (IFR) aviation course at the University of Illinois, participated in the study. The student pilots flew a series of IFR flight missions in a single-engine, fixed-based simulator. In dual-task conditions subjects were also required to discriminate between two tones differing in frequency and to make an occasional overt response. ERPs time-locked to the tones, subjective effort ratings, and overt performance measures were collected during two separate 45-min flights differing in difficulty. The difficult flight was associated with high subjective effort ratings, as well as increased deviations from the command altitude, heading, and glideslope. The P300 component of the ERP discriminated among levels of task difficulty, decreasing in amplitude with increased task demands. Within-flight demands were examined by dividing each flight into four segments: takeoff, straight and level flight, holding patterns, and landings. The amplitude of the P300 was negatively correlated with deviations from command headings across the flight segments. In sum, the findings provide preliminary evidence for the assertion that ERP components can be employed as metrics of resource allocation in complex, real-world environments.

Dissociable Aspects of Mental Workload: Examinations of the P300 Erp Component and Performance Assessments

“…However, previous research (Kramer et al, 1987) found significant differences in P300 responses with a comparable sample size. Further, if P300 responses are to be used as an on-line index of mental workload for application in adaptive systems, they will need to provide robust measurements distinguishable without large sample sizes.…”

“…Conversely, Kramer, Sirevaag, and Braune (1987) found that performance data (RT, accuracy) generated by an auditory detection task were not sensitive to changes in simulated flight task difficulty; however, peak amplitude for the P300 component was sensitive to manipulations in flight task difficulty. If sensitive to external task demands, ERP components have the potential advantage of not requiring an overt response by the participant (Mangun & Hillyard, 1995).…”

“…Two analogous versions of the oddball task (visual and auditory) were modeled after methodology utilized by Kramer et al (1987). The frequent or distracter stimuli were presented on average approximately 70% of the time and the infrequent or target stimuli were presented the remaining 30% of the time.…”

Brain potentials index executive functions during random number generation

“…This is further corroborated by the ERP pattern to the target stimuli. As in other dual task studies conducted with ERPs (Kramer et al, 1983(Kramer et al, , 1987Isreal et al, 1980), the amplitude of the P3b component to the targets in the secondary oddball task can serve as an indirect measure of processing demands of the primary ONG/RNG task (Kok, 2001). As the physical stimuli were identical for the RNG and ONG conditions, the reduced amplitude of the P3b during RNG suggests that more processing resources are taken up by this condition.…”

The Importance of Human Mental Workload in Web Design

“…Generally, it is not an inherent property, rather it emerges from the interaction between the requirements of a task, the circumstances under which it is performed, and the skills, behaviors and perceptions of the operator. The operational and practical nature of the construct of human mental workload, in the last few decades, has been acquiring interest in Neuro-science, Physiology and even Computer science (Kramer and Sirevaag, 1987;Kantowitz, 1988;Donnell and Eggemeier, 1998;Young and Stanton, 2001). There is a wide application field (Donnell and Eggemeier, 1998;Tracy and Albers, 2006;Xie and Salvendy, 2000;Gwizdka, 2009a;Gwizdka, 2009b) and this new research domain may have an important impact in the future, above all in Human-Computer Interaction.…”