Evaluating mental workload while interacting with computer-generated artificial environments

• Published in: Entertainment computing 2013-02, Vol.4 (1), p.63-69
• Main Authors: Di Stasi, Leandro Luigi, Antolí, Adoración, Cañas, José Juan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cognitive load; Eye-movements; Mental fatigue; Microworld; Saccadic peak velocity; Task complexity
• ISSN: 1875-9521; 1875-953X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.entcom.2011.03.005

► FireChief® microworld was used. ► Two interaction strategies have been trained in constant conditions through 16 trials. ► On the 17th trial an environmental change was introduced. ► This change affected only one strategy. ► Data support the hypothesis that those strategies differ in cognitive complexity. The need to evaluate user behaviour and cognitive efforts when interacting with complex simulations plays a crucial role in many information and communications technologies. The aim of this paper is to propose the use of eye-related measures as indices of mental workload in complex tasks. An experiment was conducted using the FireChief® microworld in which user mental workload was manipulated by changing the interaction strategy required to perform a common task. There were significant effects of the attentional state of users on visual scanning behavior. Longer fixations were found for the more demanding strategy, slower saccades were found as the time-on-task increased, and pupil diameter decreased when an environmental change was introduced. Questionnaire and performance data converged with the psychophysiological ones. These results provide additional empirical support for the ability of some eye-related indices to discriminate variations in the attentional state of the user in visual–dynamic complex tasks and show their potential diagnostic capacity in the field of applied ergonomics.