Double Trade-off Curves with Different Cognitive Processing Combinations: Testing the Cancellation Axiom of Mental Workload Measurement Theory

Abstract

The accomplishment model of average mental workload--a formal axiomatic measurement theory--was used as a basis for developing and testing secondary task indices of mental workload (H. A. Colle & G. B. Reid, 1997). Its cancellation axiom implies global sensitivity, which is an important theoretical and practical criterion for mental workload indices. Performance levels of different secondary tasks were empirically equated in mental workload and then used to test the cancellation axiom. Cognitive processing similarity--including orthographic, phonemic, and semantic processing of pairs of operator and secondary tasks--was manipulated in three experiments. Equivalencies between secondary tasks were independent of secondary-operator task similarity, consistent with the cancellation axiom and the global sensitivity of these secondary tasks. The results suggest that standardized secondary task techniques can be developed for the practical measurement of mental workload. Actual or potential applications of this research include the development of functionally useful and realistic secondary task measures of mental workload.

Estimating a Mental Workload Redline in a Simulated Air-to-Ground Combat Mission

“…As more stimuli were presented in the fixed interval of time, participants made more correct classifications as would be expected in Region A. Based on secondary task and subjective measures, mental workload increased (Colle & Reid, 1998, 1999. However, at even higher presentation rates, the number of correct classifications no longer increased and either leveled off or decreased to form an inverted U-shaped curve.…”

“…Accomplishment scores have been defined within a measurement-theoretic approach to mental workload, and they have been used to develop and evaluate secondary task measures of mental workload in Region A (Colle, Amell, Ewry, & Jenkins, 1988;Colle & Reid, 1997, 1999. Conceptually, accomplishment scores are indexes of the amount of mental work accomplished.…”

On the Use of Machine Learning for EEG-Based Workload Assessment: Algorithms Comparison in a Realistic Task

“…Moreover, measuring performance on a task does not allow to obtain this measure of a differential nature (the remaining resources) so it is always necessary to use a secondary task. However, even the use of secondary tasks very often remains too closely linked to typical laboratory tasks and makes what really happens in multitasking implausible [15]. The main objective of neurophysiological measurements is to provide an objective and continuous, as well as an online measurement of an operator's workload.…”

Mental Workload Manipulation Using Multiple Homogeneous Tasks: Performance Effects

“…The theoretical underpinnings of this research include (a) multiple resource theory (Wickens, 2002) and (b) the accomplishment model of average mental workload (Colle & Reid, 1988, 1997, 1999. (a) Multiple resource theory assumes that multiple dimensions are needed to describe an operator's mental workload with separate capacities for each dimension.…”