ABSTRACT

However, the notion of mental workload is a relatively new concept when, for instance, compared to companion techniques for the assessment of physical load (Meshkati et al. 1998). Since workload is often considered a hypothetical construct, a formal, universal consensus for the definition of mental workload has yet to be established. Nevertheless, mental workload measurement, a particularly subjective assessment, continues to be widely used as a means of measuring the load placed on the human cognitive system. This could be seen as a result of the increasing complex work environment within which people operate today. Simply put, subjective assessment techniques of mental workload entail the direct or indirect queries of the individual for their opinion of the workload involved in the task (Meshkati et al. 1998), that is, asking the person themselves to estimate the amount of load placed on his or her cognitive system for performing a certain task.