Journal d'ergonomie
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Abstrait

Psycho Physiological and Subjective Responses to Mental Workload Levels during N-Back Task

Majid Fallahi, Rashid Heidarimoghadam, Majid Motamedzade and Maryam farhadian

The present study investigated the effects of mental workload levels on psychophysiological and subjective responses during n-Back task. Heart rate, heart rate variability, shoulder muscle activity, EEG and EOG were measured during performing four mental tasks by 32 males. NASA-TLX completed at the end of each mental task. Using NASA-TLX the subjects stated that the task demands of very high mental task were higher than those of low, medium and high mental tasks. By increasing mental workload LF/HF ratio, shoulder muscle activity, eye activity and alpha activity significantly changed. It suggests that mentioned indices have enough sensitivity to quantify mental workload. Future studies should implement to determine the long-term effects such as cardiovascular and mental disorders in both males and females which experience different levels of mental workload in daily working condition. To get better results suggested those parameters such as: cultural differences, anthropometric data, body mass index, alertness, shift work and menstrual cycle take into account.