Mental workload and information management

Abstract

The author notes that the use of high technology in vehicles has the potential of greatly increasing the amount of information presented to a driver. She discusses the need for the new support systems to be sensitive to the mental workload. Primary task, secondary task, physiological, and subjective measures of this are described. The contributions of task difficulty, effort, and arousal to the driver's subjective mental workload are discussed. The manner in which each of these factors might be measured on-line is described. System adaptations that might be made at high levels of mental load are suggested.<>