Neuroergonomics method for measuring the influence of mental workload modulation on cognitive state of manual assembly worker

Abstract

In this study, we simulated a manual assembly operation, where participants were exposed to two distinct ways of information presentation, reflecting two task conditions (monotonous and more demanding task condition). We investigated how changes in mental workload (MWL) modulate the P300 component of event-related potentials (ERPs), recorded from wireless electroencephalography (EEG), reaction times (RTs) and quantity of task unrelated movements (retrieved from Kinect). We found a decrease in P300 amplitude and an increase in the quantity of the task unrelated movements, both indicating a decrease in attention level during a monotonous task (lower MWL). During the more demanding task, where a slightly higher MWL was imposed, these trends were not obvious. RTs did not show any dependency on the level of workload applied. These results suggest that a wireless EEG, but also Kinect, can be used to measure the influence of MWL variation on the cognitive state of the workers.