Cognitive load measurement and impact analysis on performance in dual-task situations

Along with the development of automation technology, the focus on human-machine interaction has gradually shifted from physical interaction to cognitive interaction. Especially, the cognitive load measurement is important to pilots who are up against high mental stress and have a lot of information to deal with at short notice. Through designing and carrying out experiments in the scenario of flight state parameters monitoring and emergency handling, this study searched for indicators which were sensitive to cognitive load by one-way ANOVA (analysis of variance) and non-parametric test, and analyzed the influence of cognitive load on the sensitivity of measures and the influence of the secondary task on the performance of the primary task. The results showed that NASA-TLX, SWAT, PAAS, PRT, SRT, VLF Power, A++, B - , and Gyro were sensitive to cognitive load. The secondary task would lead to an increase in cognitive load, meanwhile, the sensitivity of NASA-TLX, SWAT, and PAAS would become lower. On the contrary, the sensitivity of A++ and B - were almost not affected by cognitive load. Besides, for dual task, the more difficult the primary task was, the more significant the impact of the secondary task on the performance of the primary task would be.