RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Smith, M.E., Gevins, A., Brown, H., Karnik, A., & Du, R. (2001). Monitoring task load with multivariate EEG measures during complex forms of human computer interaction. Human Factors, 43, 366-380.

ABSTRACT

Electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings were made while 16 subjects performed versions of a personal computer-based flight simulation task that were either low, moderate, or high in difficulty. As task difficulty increased, frontal midline theta EEG activity increased, and alpha band activity decreased. A subject-specific function that combined multiple EEG features to create a single load index was derived from a sample of each subject's data and then applied to new test data from that subject. Index values were computed for every four seconds of task data. Across subjects, mean task load index values increased systematically with increasing task difficulty, and differed significantly between the different task versions. Actual or potential application of this research includes the use of multivariate EEG-based methods to monitor task loading during naturalistic computer-based work.