Standing
Undergraduate
Type of Proposal
Oral Research Presentation
Faculty
Faculty of Human Kinetics
Faculty Sponsor
Dr. Francesco Biondi
Proposal
If traditional ergonomics optimizes jobs with a focus on the body, cognitive ergonomics optimizes jobs based on the mind. Since interaction with technology has been increasing, understanding the mental workload of a task becomes a critical factor when analyzing performance and safety. Cognitive overload can be described as a situation where the mental demands of a task are greater than the individual’s ability to successfully complete the given task. It is known that this stressful state impedes task performance and can even increase muscle activity. This indicates that a job requiring a higher cognitive demand could lead to more injuries; however, the literature is limited when observing this effect in simulated manufacturing tasks. It is also known that blink rate and pupil size change during workloads in stationary tasks, suggesting ocular metrics could be a viable measure of mental workload. This relationship, however, has not been studied in a task requiring full body movement. Therefore, the goals of this study are threefold: 1) further understand the relationship between cognitive overload and task performance/safety; 2) determine if ocular metrics are a viable measure of mental workload during a task requiring full body movement; and 3) analyze any potential relationship between muscular activity and ocular metrics.
Availability
March 30, 12-3 or April 1, 12-3
Investigating the effects of cognitive overload in a simulated manufactoring task
If traditional ergonomics optimizes jobs with a focus on the body, cognitive ergonomics optimizes jobs based on the mind. Since interaction with technology has been increasing, understanding the mental workload of a task becomes a critical factor when analyzing performance and safety. Cognitive overload can be described as a situation where the mental demands of a task are greater than the individual’s ability to successfully complete the given task. It is known that this stressful state impedes task performance and can even increase muscle activity. This indicates that a job requiring a higher cognitive demand could lead to more injuries; however, the literature is limited when observing this effect in simulated manufacturing tasks. It is also known that blink rate and pupil size change during workloads in stationary tasks, suggesting ocular metrics could be a viable measure of mental workload. This relationship, however, has not been studied in a task requiring full body movement. Therefore, the goals of this study are threefold: 1) further understand the relationship between cognitive overload and task performance/safety; 2) determine if ocular metrics are a viable measure of mental workload during a task requiring full body movement; and 3) analyze any potential relationship between muscular activity and ocular metrics.