Chapter 11: Mental Workload, Stress and Individual Differences: Cognitive and

Neuroergonomic Approaches

Slide Template

THE NEUROERGONOMIC APPROACH

MENTAL WORKLOAD

Workload Overload

• Relative/absolute workload• Predictive models• Workload assessment

Workload Overload

Reserve Capacity Region

• Relative predictions

Measures of Mental Workload and Reserve Capacity

• Behavioral measures• Secondary tasks• Subjective measures• Purpose of workload assessment

Neuroergonomics of Workload

• Overview• EEG• Event-related potentials• Ultrasound measures of cerebral blood flow• Near infrared spectroscopy and cerebral

oxygenation

Neuroergonomics of Workload

• Heart-rate variability• Pupil diameter• Visual scanning, entropy, and the “nearest

neighbor index”• Costs and benefits of physiological measures

of workload

Relationship between Workload Measures

• Dissociation• Effort and the number of tasks

Consequences of Workload

• Adaptation

STRESS, PHYSIOLOGICAL AROUSAL, AND HUMAN PERFORMANCE

The Yerkes Dodson Law

• Arousal Theory• Transactional and Cognitive

Appraisal Theories of Stress• Stress Effects on Performance

Stress Components Effects

• Selective attention: Narrowing• Selective attention :Distraction• Working memory loss• Preservation

Stress Components Effects

• Strategic control– Recruitment of more resources– Remove the stressor– Change the goals of the task– Do nothing

Stress Remediation

• Environmental solutions• Design solutions• Training

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

• Ability Differences in Multitasking• Differences in Working Memory• Molecular Genetics and Individual

Differences in Cognition• Brain Computer Interfaces for

Healthy and Disabled Individuals