Authors:
R. N. Roy
1
;
A. Breust
2
;
S. Bonnet
2
;
J. Porcherot
2
;
S. Charbonnier
3
;
C. Godin
2
and
A. Campagne
3
Affiliations:
1
Univ. Grenoble Alpes and Univ. Grenoble Alpes and CNRS, France
;
2
Univ. Grenoble Alpes, France
;
3
Univ. Grenoble Alpes and CNRS, France
Keyword(s):
Workload, Mental State Monitoring, ERP, Audition.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Applications
;
Human-Computer Interaction
;
Pattern Recognition
;
Physiological Computing in Mobile Devices
;
Physiological Computing Systems
;
Software Engineering
Abstract:
Mental workload can be assessed via neurophysiological markers. Temporal features such as event related
potentials (ERPs) are one of those which are very often described in the literature. However, most of the
studies that evaluate their sensitivity to workload use secondary tasks. Yet potentials elicited by ignored
stimuli could provide mental state monitoring systems with less intrusive probing methods. For instance,
auditory probing systems could be used in adaptive driving or e-learning applications. This study evaluates
how workload influences auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) elicited by a single-stimulus paradigm when
probes are to be ignored. Ten participants performed a Sternberg memory task on a touchpad with three
levels of difficulty plus a view-only condition. In addition, they performed two ecological tasks of their
choice, one deemed easy (e.g. reading novels), and the other difficult (e.g. programming). AEPs were
elicited thanks to pure tones presented during the memo
ry task retention period, and during the whole extent
of the external tasks. Performance and AEPs were recorded and analyzed. Participants’ accuracy decreased
linearly with increasing workload, whereas the difference in amplitude between the P3 and its adjacent
components, N2 and SW, increased. This reveals the relevance of this triphasic sequence for mental
workload assessment.
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