Mental Workload Class Log
Spring 2024

Tuesday, 9 January
Develop structure of course and student responsibilities.
Assignment: Read the following: van Acker et al.(2018) and deWinter(2014).  The vanAcker paper will provide a foundational framework for the formulation and application of the mental workload (MWL) construct (see Figure 1). The deWinter (2014) paper introduces the notion of the "representational-operational continuum" for the classification of scientific constructs and documents the explosive growth of the NASA-TLX as the de facto methodology for MWL assessment.

Thursday, 11 January
Evolution of the mental workload construct. Review of "operationalism". Systematic developement of an operational definition of mental workload according to van Acker, et al. (2018).  Review of Stevens' Taxonomy of Measurement and a warning about "ordinal" scale measurements being treated as if they were "interval" scales.  Exploration of the explosive growth of published studies using the NASA-TLX as their de facto operationalization of mental workload.
Presentations: deWinter-PDF  deWinter-Powerpoint   vanAcker-PDF  vanAcker-Powerpoint
Assignment: Read Wiehler et al (2022) to explore a potential neurophysiological mechanism of cognitive fatigue/effort.

Tuesday, 16 January
Reviewed evidence that the accumulation of glutamate in the extracellular space of neurons in the lateral prefrontal cortex is associated with prolonged cognitive effort and may serve as the physiological basis for generating the subjective experience of "cognitive control operations as effotfull/fatiging work" (A most interesting speculation).
Presentations:  Wiehler et al-PDF  Wiehler et al-Powerpoint

Thursday, 18 January
Outlined the five criteria for evaluating assessments of mental workload; reviewed secondary task techniques (load tasks versus subsidiary tasks), subjective and the major physiological assessment techniques.

Tuesday, Thursday January 23 & 25
No class this week.  Assignment: Read O'Donnell & Eggemeier (1986).  This book chapter will serve as the foundation text for this MWL class.  It was written a long time ago but remains the most comprehensive exploration of MWL in the human factors literature.  We will bring its contents up to date via auxiliary readings published in the current millenium.

Tuesday, 30 January
Reviewed 5 criteria for evaluation of mental workload assessment techniques; introduced the theoretical Meister Curve relating operator performance to workload; developed the deWaard Curve which extends the Meister Curve by incorporating the inverted-U function and explicitly plotting both performance and mental workload as a function of increasing task demand.  The deWaard curve provides an explicit distinction between performance-based versus workload-based "red lines"; class ended with an introduction to unidimensional subjective mental workload measures: Cooper-Harper, modified Cooper-Harper and the Rating Scale Mental Effort (RSME) assessment instruments.
Presentation:  PowerPoint  PDF

Thursday, 1 February
Examined the nature of the Instantaneous Self-Assessment (ISA) technique along with its advantages and disadvantages.  The nature of the Subjective Workload Assessment Technique (SWAT) was explored. The application of Conjoint Measurement Theory to the Scale Development stage of the SWAT protocol was discuussed and the members of the class participated in a test Scale Development exercise using the 27 cases presented in the SWAT Users' Guide.  For additional details see: Reid, G.B., Potter, S.S. & Bressler, J.R. (1989).  Subjective Workload Assessment Technique (SWAT): A User's Guide.  Technical Report AAMRL-TR-89-023. Wright-Patterson Airforce Base, OH: Armstrong Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory.  Reading Assignment: Tsang & Velazquez (1996) with 1-page student commentary

Tuesday, February 6
Discussed options for Friday's HF colloquium with class...Decided on the topic of Discomfort/Disability Glare.  Remainder of class consisted of a "deep dive" into the Tsang & Velazquez paper with a focus on the multivariate analyses demonstrating significant differences in the 6-dimensional Workload Profile ratings as a function of the experimental conditions that varied in objective task demand level.  This finding boosts the authors' claim that observers are capable of using the WP scales in a systematic and sensible fashion.  Some follow-up will be pursued in the next class. 
Presentation:  Powerpoint  PDF
Reading Assignment: Watch the four short instructional videos on the NASA-TLX available on the class "Resources" web page. If you have time, also take a quick look at the NASA-TLX User's Guide (also available on the Resources page.

Thursday, February 8
Finish-up discussion of SWAT; Introduction to the NASA-Task Load Index (TLX). Presentation: NASA-TLX PPT
Reading Assignment #1: Harms (1991) - A quick example of a subsidiary task technique before pursuit of physiological measures
Reading Assignment #2: Charles & Nixon (2019) - A quick & easy survey of physiological measurement techniques for the assessment of mental workload

Tuesday, February 13
Hands-on experience using and scoring the (weighted) NASA-TLX.  Introduction to subsidiary task indices of workload. Reviewed Harms (1986; 1991) application of a numerical calculation secondary task to assess the cognitive demands of driving in rural (low workload) versus town-center (high workload) environments.  Examined her metric for relating subsidiary task performance to driving safety. Presentation: Harms(1986; 1991) PPT

Thursday, February 15
Introduction to physiological techniques for the assessment of mental workload. Cardiovascular measures: HR and HRV
Reading Assignment:  Jackson & Bolger (2014) with 1-page student commentary required
Reading Assignment:  Chikhi et al. (2022)

Tuesday, February 20
Physiological basis of the EEG; Introduction to EEG theta/alpha/beta band indices of mental workload

Thursday, February 22
Electrophysiology lab day...Class will be held in the basement Conference Room of East Hall (aka "The Dungeon")
Electrocardiogram (ECG), Pulse Amplitude/Photoplethysmography
Assignment: Watch ERP Bootcamp Videos #1 thru #15
Reading: Miller et al. (2011)

Tuesday, February 27
Event-Related Potentials (ERPs); Task-Relevant versus Task-Irrelevant Probe Technique

Thursday, February 29 (Leap Day)
Electrophysiology lab day: EEG, Event-Related Potentials and the Oddball Paradigm

Tuesday, March 5
ERP 'reciprocity' in dual-task protocols as predicted by Multiple Resource Theory; summary of the results obtained from Oddball Paradigm demo collected in our 2/29 electrophysiology lab; preliminary planning for group research projects

Thursday, March 7
Brainstorming session to identify topical candidates for group research projects. 
Assignment: Students need to identify group projects by our class meeting on Thursday, March 21

Tuesday, March 12 - Thursday, March 14 ------- SPRING BREAK

Upcoming Readings if you have time to spare during Spring Break:
Beatty & Lucero-Wagoner (2000) - The Pupillary System (with 1-page student commentary required)
Gawron (2012)  - Summary of secondary task studies of mental workload

Tuesday, March 19
Introduction to cognitive pupillometry.
Optional reading: van der Wel & Steenbergen (2018). Update to Beatty & Lucero-Wagner (2000)

Thursday, March 21
Finalization of Group Research Projects:
Project #1: Effectiveness of Misinformation (Yan; Mary; Nafisa; Ty)
Project #2: Visual Cognition (Visual Working Memory?) (Dillon; Victoria; Hezem)
Project #3: Rhythmic Tapping (Eric)
Survey of Secondary Task Techniques - Part 1 (see Gawron, 2012)

Tuesday, March 26
Secondary Task Techniques - Part 2

Thursday, March 28
MATB: Multi-Attribute Task Battery Lab Day (Meet in the East Hall "Dungeon")
Reading Assinment: MATB User Manual  Revised MATB User Manual

Tuesday, April 2
Speech Chronemics
Reading Assignment: Krueger (1989)  (1-page student commentary)

Thursday, April 4
Pupillometrics Lab Day (Gazepoint; PupilLabs; PupilEXT systems) (Meet in East Hall "Dungeon")

Tuesday, April 9
Group Project #1 Meeting (Professor's Office);  Click Here Final Exam Questions
cMRT Reading Assignments: Wickens(2002)  Horrey&Wickens(2003) (1-page student commentary)

Thursday, Aprill 11
Group Project #2 Meeting (Professor's Office)

Tuesday, April 16
Introduction to Wickens' computational Multiple Resource Theory (cMRT) see class Resources page

Thursday, April 18
Implementation of cMRT

Tuesday, April 23
Final Examination

Thursday, April 25
Group Project In-Class Summary Presentations
Last Day to Submit Project Proposals