Monitoring of mental workload levels during an everyday life office-work scenario

Personal and ubiquitous healthcare applications offer new opportunities to prevent long-term health damage due to increased mental workload by continuously monitoring physiological signs related to prolonged high workload and providing just-in-time feedback. In order to achieve a quantification of mental load, different load levels that occur during a workday have to be discriminated. In this work, we present how mental workload levels in everyday life scenarios can be discriminated with data from a mobile ECG logger by incorporating individual calibration measures. We present an experiment design to induce three different levels of mental workload in calibration sessions and to monitor mental workload levels in everyday life scenarios of seven healthy male subjects. Besides the recording of ECG data, we collect subjective ratings of the perceived workload with the NASA Task Load Index (TLX), whereas objective measures are assessed by collecting salivary cortisol. According to the subjective ratings, we show that all participants perceived the induced load levels as intended from the experiment design. The heart rate variability (HRV) features under investigation can be classified into two distinct groups. Features in the first group, representing markers associated with parasympathetic nervous system activity, show a decrease in their values with increased workload. Features in the second group, representing markers associated with sympathetic nervous system activity or predominance, show an increase in their values with increased workload. We employ multiple regression analysis to model the relationship between relevant HRV features and the subjective ratings of NASA-TLX in order to predict the mental workload levels during office-work. The resulting predictions were correct for six out of the seven subjects. In addition, we compare the performance of three classification methods to identify the mental workload level during office-work. The best results were obtained with linear discriminant analysis (LDA) that yielded a correct classification for six out of the seven subjects. The k-nearest neighbor algorithm (k-NN) and the support vector machine (SVM) resulted in a correct classification of the mental workload level during office-work for five out of the seven subject

Integrating driving and traffic simulators for the study of railway level crossing safety interventions: a methodology

Safety at Railway Level Crossings (RLXs) is an important issue within the Australian transport system. Crashes at RLXs involving road vehicles in Australia are estimated to cost $10 million each year. Such crashes are mainly due to human factors; unintentional errors contribute to 46% of all fatal collisions and are far more common than deliberate violations. This suggests that innovative intervention targeting drivers are particularly promising to improve RLX safety. In recent years there has been a rapid development of a variety of affordable technologies which can be used to increase driver’s risk awareness around crossings. To date, no research has evaluated the potential effects of such technologies at RLXs in terms of safety, traffic and acceptance of the technology. Integrating driving and traffic simulations is a safe and affordable approach for evaluating these effects. This methodology will be implemented in a driving simulator, where we recreated realistic driving scenario with typical road environments and realistic traffic. This paper presents a methodology for evaluating comprehensively potential benefits and negative effects of such interventions: this methodology evaluates driver awareness at RLXs , driver distraction and workload when using the technology . Subjective assessment on perceived usefulness and ease of use of the technology is obtained from standard questionnaires. Driving simulation will provide a model of driving behaviour at RLXs which will be used to estimate the effects of such new technology on a road network featuring RLX for different market penetrations using a traffic simulation. This methodology can assist in evaluating future safety interventions at RLXs

Spatial audio in small display screen devices

Our work addresses the problem of (visual) clutter in mobile device interfaces. The solution we propose involves the translation of technique-from the graphical to the audio domain-for expliting space in information representation. This article presents an illustrative example in the form of a spatialisedaudio progress bar. In usability tests, participants performed background monitoring tasks significantly more accurately using this spatialised audio (a compared with a conventional visual) progress bar. Moreover, their performance in a simultaneously running, visually demanding foreground task was significantly improved in the eye-free monitoring condition. These results have important implications for the design of multi-tasking interfaces for mobile devices

Effects of cognitive tasks on car drivers’ behaviors and physiological responses

The effects of drivers’ engagement in cognitive tasks (i.e., non-visual, cognitively loading activities unrelated to the task of driving) are debated and unclear. Numerous experiments show impaired driver behaviors, yet naturalistic studies typically do not find an increased crash risk. In the future, autonomous driving (AD) is expected to improve traffic safety while allowing safe engagement in cognitive (and other) tasks. Having the opportunity to perform non-driving related tasks while traveling may then motivate drivers to use AD, provided they can actually engage in the tasks. Unfortunately, research on drivers’ engagement in cognitive tasks suffers severe methodological limitations since reliable and unintrusive measures of cognitive load are lacking.The aim of this thesis is therefore to advance the understanding of task-induced cognitive load in the context of traffic safety. This aim is split into two objectives: A) to better understand how drivers’ involvement in cognitive tasks can affect safety-relevant driver behaviors and decisions and B) to provide methodological guidance about assessing cognitive load in drivers using physiological measures.To accomplish Objective A, effects of cognitive tasks on driver behaviors were studied during routine driving and in a safety-critical event in a driving simulator. Also, drivers’ ability to engage in a non-driving related task while using AD in real traffic was explored. In line with the cognitive control hypothesis (Engstr\uf6m et al., 2017), it was found that cognitive tasks negatively affected driver behaviors in situations where cognitive control was needed, for example in intersections—but not in a lead vehicle braking scenario where responses were triggered automatically by visual looming. It was also found that although the number of off-path glances decreased during cognitive load, the timing of the remaining glances was unaffected. Clearly, cognitive load has different effects on different mechanisms. When using AD, drivers were indeed capable of engaging in a non-driving related task—suggesting that AD will be able to fulfill drivers’ desire to perform such tasks while traveling, which may motivate AD usage and thus improve traffic safety (given that AD is truly safer than manual driving). Finally, a simulator study addressing Objective B showed that the measurability of cognitive load was greatly improved by recognizing that multiple coexisting mental responses give rise to different physiological responses. This approach can provide less context-dependent measurements and allows for a better, more detailed understanding of the effects of cognitive tasks.These findings can help improve traffic safety—both by being used in system development, and as part of the systems themselves

A principled approach to the measurement of situation awareness in commercial aviation

The issue of how to support situation awareness among crews of modern commercial aircraft is becoming especially important with the introduction of automation in the form of sophisticated flight management computers and expert systems designed to assist the crew. In this paper, cognitive theories are discussed that have relevance for the definition and measurement of situation awareness. These theories suggest that comprehension of the flow of events is an active process that is limited by the modularity of attention and memory constraints, but can be enhanced by expert knowledge and strategies. Three implications of this perspective for assessing and improving situation awareness are considered: (1) Scenario variations are proposed that tax awareness by placing demands on attention; (2) Experimental tasks and probes are described for assessing the cognitive processes that underlie situation awareness; and (3) The use of computer-based human performance models to augment the measures of situation awareness derived from performance data is explored. Finally, two potential example applications of the proposed assessment techniques are described, one concerning spatial awareness using wide field of view displays and the other emphasizing fault management in aircraft systems

EEG Theta Power Activity Reflects Workload among Army Combat Drivers: An Experimental Study

We thank Héctor Rieiro, Eduardo Bailon, and Jose M. Morales, (University of Granada) for their help in data processing. We also thank Lieutenant Colonel Francisco de Asís Vázquez Prieto (Training and Doctrine Command, Spanish Army) for his help in organizing the study.We aimed to evaluate the effects of mental workload variations, as a function of the road environment, on the brain activity of army drivers performing combat and non-combat scenarios in a light multirole vehicle dynamic simulator. Forty-one non-commissioned officers completed three standardized driving exercises with different terrain complexities (low, medium, and high) while we recorded their electroencephalographic (EEG) activity. We focused on variations in the theta EEG power spectrum, a well-known index of mental workload. We also assessed performance and subjective ratings of task load. The theta EEG power spectrum in the frontal, temporal, and occipital areas were higher during the most complex scenarios. Performance (number of engine stops) and subjective data supported these findings. Our findings strengthen previous results found in civilians on the relationship between driver mental workload and the theta EEG power spectrum. This suggests that EEG activity can give relevant insight into mental workload variations in an objective, unbiased fashion, even during real training and/or operations. The continuous monitoring of the warfighter not only allows instantaneous detection of over/underload but also might provide online feedback to the system (either automated equipment or the crew) to take countermeasures and prevent fatal errors.This work was supported by Santander Bank–CEMIX UGR-MADOC (grant number PINs2018-15 to CDP & LLDS) and the Centro Universitario de la Defensa–Zaragoza (grant numbers 2015-05 and 2017-03 to MVS). Additional support was obtained from the Unit of Excellence on Brain, Behavior, and Health (SC2), funded by the Excellence actions program of the University of Granada. The funding organizations had no role in the design or conduct of this research. Research by LLDS is supported by the Ramón y Cajal fellowship program from the Spanish State Research Agency (RYC-2015-17483)

Work-Life Balance 2.0? An Examination of Social Media Management Practice and Agency Employee Coping Strategies in a 24/7 Social World

This study examines the work experiences of public relations agency professionals who specialize in social media and digital strategy for clients and those who manage employees tasked with monitoring, updating and responding to social media content. Building upon existing literature focused on work-life balance dynamics for strategic communicators, the research draws from a series of in-depth interviews and correspondence conducted with 26 agency professionals, representing a brand range of the industry. Participants were asked to describe how social media has impacted the nature and volume of their job responsibilities over the past five years, and to discuss how social media management duties have influenced career satisfaction within the industry. Interviewees were also asked about strategies their agencies are using to help employees respond to client needs and the 24/7 nature of social media. Common themes among responses were identified, as well as noteworthy anecdotal evidence. While interviewees expressed mixed emotions related to social media and its impact on their careers, personal lives and the broader industry, participants agreed the rise of social media has dramatically altered agency practice and client expectations, especially related to the speed of the workflow. Participants discussed issues of employee burnout and reported specific challenges related to keeping pace with quickly evolving technology, and the perceived need to maintain a personal brand conveying cutting-edge expertise. Others highlighted opportunities and unique challenges social media has created for more junior agency employees. Interviewees also described family dynamics and the distinct work-life challenges faced by parents, especially mothers, in juggling care-giving roles with agency responsibilities. Findings include identification of best practices and potential strategies for addressing contemporary work-life balance challenges