Measurement and evaluation of mental workload for aircraft cockpit display interface

Mental workload is one of the most important factors that affect flight safety. Objective measurement for pilot mental workload is of great significance for the ergonomics evaluation and optimal design of mental tasks in aircraft cockpit display interface. On the basis of event related potential (ERP) technology, measurement and evaluation of three levels of mental workloads during flight simulation task were carried out. Mismatch negativity (MMN) and P3a components were recorded and selected as evaluation indices under three stimulus "oddball" paradigm. Experiment results show that the peak amplitudes of MMN and P3a are both sensitive to mental workloads. Increased MMN and decreased P3a were found under the high mental workload condition, indicating a more engaged change-detection and much reduced involuntary orienting of attention. Compared with the amplitudes of MMN and P3a elicited by novel stimulus, the ones elicited by task-irrelevant deviant stimulus had better sensitivity to mental workload related to flight task and can be available for further mental workload classification.