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