ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a synopsis of research in the field of applied psychophysiology. It discusses the potential of psycho physiological techniques for the assessment of information processing activities of human operators in adaptively automated systems. The chapter focuses on one class of psychophysiological measures—event-related brain potentials (ERP)—and, for the most part, the measurement of a single but multidimensional psychological construct—mental workload. It examines the degree to which ERPs can be expected to tap dynamic changes in operator state. In manual and semi-automated systems, human operators were constantly engaged in making analog and discrete inputs in an effort to maintain the state of the system within an acceptable range. However, overt performance is quite sparse in automated systems, because the operators’ only occasionally intervene to adjust system parameters or conduct tests. In such cases, it is difficult to determine the extent of operators’ engagement in automated systems.
