The Effects of Practice on Tracking and Subjective Workload

Abstract

Six college-age male subjects performed one hundred, two-minute trials on a second-order tracking task. After each trial, subjects estimated perceived workload using both the NASA TLX and SWAT workload assessment procedures. Results confirmed an expected performance improvement on the tracking task which followed traditional learning curves within the performance of each individual. Perceived workload also decreased for both scales across trials. While performance variability significantly decreased across trials, workload variability remained constant. One month later, the same subjects returned to complete the second experiment in the sequence which was a retention replication of the first experiment. Results replicated those for the first experiment except that both performance error and workload were at reduced overall levels. Results in general affirm a parallel workload reduction with performance improvement, an observation consistent with a resource-based view of automaticity.

Individual differences in tracking

“…The order of administration of the sessions in the testing phase was randomized across participants. There were at least two days between each session to avoid acute eVects associated with any localized muscle fatigue (see Hancock et al, 1989). …”

A comparative study of input devices for digital slide navigation

“…This can be compared to the results of a study of perceived workload, wherein a laboratory tracking task with acceleration control most of the learning effect on the perceived workload had disappeared after 10 min of practice, but continued to decline slowly. [ 20 ] While the workload of the touchpad, therefore, can be assumed to continue to decrease with more practice, there is currently no rationale indicating that it would reach a lower workload than the other devices.…”