In order to design safe vehicles it is important to be able to evaluate in-vehicle systems to determine how distracting they are for people to use while driving. The Peripheral Detection Task (PDT) is a method for measuring the amount of driver mental workload and visual distraction in road vehicles. It is a secondary task measure where drivers must respond to random targets presented in their ...

We studied the capability of a Hybrid functional neuroimaging technique to quantify human mental workload (MWL). We have used electroencephalography (EEG) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) as imaging modalities with 17 healthy subjects performing the letter n-back task, a standard experimental paradigm related to working memory (WM). The level of MWL was parametrically changed b...

Predicting human performance and mental workload in multiple task situations at an early stage of system design can save a significant amount of time and cost. However, existing modeling tools either can only predict human performance or require users of tools to learn a new programming language. Queueing Network-Model Human Processor (QNMHP) is a new cognitive architecture for modeling both hu...

Mental workload can be assessed via neurophysiological markers. Temporal features such as event related potentials (ERPs) are one of those which are very often described in the literature. However, most of the studies that evaluate their sensitivity to workload use secondary tasks. Yet potentials elicited by ignored stimuli could provide mental state monitoring systems with less intrusive probi...

One of the applications of ergonomics disciplinary is designing driver workstation compatible to users' characteristics. The aim of this study was evaluation of interior design of Shoka vehicle with respect to the accommodation for Iranian population and proposing suggestions for customizing design of this vehicle. This study was a descriptive-analytical study conducted among thirty men from Ir...

Original scientific paper The workload factors for labor-intensive works of employees are always taken into account in measuring workloads. However, with the introduction of computers to work planning and coordination, the tasks have often begun to take on mental workload. Mental workload is encountered in academic studies in relatively high prevalence. In this regard, it is important to examin...

BACKGROUND The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is now a standard assessment format and while examiner training is seen as essential to assure quality, there appear to be no widely accepted measures of examiner performance. METHODS The objective of this study was to determine whether the routine training provided to examiners improved their accuracy and reduced their mental wo...

Stress is a major societal issue with negative impacts on health and economy. Physiological computing offers a continuous, direct, and unobtrusive method for stress level assessment and computer-assisted stress management. However, stress is a complex construct and its physiology can vary depending on its source: cognitive workload or social evaluation. To study the feasibility of physiology-ba...

AIMS To evaluate the association between working conditions and visual fatigue and mental health among systems analysts living in São Paulo, Brazil. METHODS A cross sectional study was carried out by a multidisciplinary team. It included: ergonomic analysis of work, individual and group interviews, and 553 self applied questionnaires in two enterprises. The comparison population numbered 136 ...