Publication

Event-related potentials as indices of mental workload while using an in-vehicle information system

New in-vehicle information systems are now being commercialized. Despite the expected benefits, some concerns exist that they may overload drivers’ capacity and decrease performance. According to the multiple resource theory (Wickens, Hum Factors 50:449–455,  https://doi.org/10.1518/001872008X288394, 2008), overload may occur at different stages of processing, that is, perceptual–central and/or response-related stages. Therefore, different measures may be needed to detect such specific demands. We explored the sensitivity of different mental workload measurements during the performance of an auditory task alone (single task) and in combination with a tracking task that was presented without (dual task) or, with a visual display (triple task). The demands associated with the number of concurrent tasks (single, dual and triple tasks), tracking speed (low, high, adjustable) and their interaction were analyzed. To account for different processing requirements, mental workload was assessed using subjective, behavioral (performance on the auditory task) and psychophysiological measurements (event-related potentials). 17 young adults participated in the study. The results showed that most measurements discriminated between the performances of one or more tasks, as well as between low and high speeds. However, only the subjective ratings and tracking task performance further discriminated between the dual- and triple-task conditions. Finally, ERPs (N1 and P3) were the only measure detecting increases in cognitive demands associated with higher requirements on processing speed combined with the addition of the display. Our results suggest that ERPs may provide complementary information to other traditional mental workload measures. Its applications in the evaluation and design of future systems should be investigated.

Author(s)
Solís-Marcos, I., & Kircher, K.
Research area
Road user behaviour
Publication type
Scientific journal paper
Published in
Cognition, Technology & Work.
Project
Year of publication
2018