Investigating Mental Workload Changes in a Long Duration Supervisory Control Task

With improving automation in many critical domains, operators will be expected to handle long periods of low task load while monitoring a system, and possibly responding to emergent situations. Monitoring the psychophysiological state of the operator during low task load may detect maladapted attention states in order to predict performance and facilitate a more effective workload transition during critical periods. This research explored the question of detecting anomalous attention states during transitions to high workload following extended periods of boredom using a non-invasive neuroimaging technique called functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Subjects at the point of lowest engagement and priming had a diminished hemodynamic response and performed worse on missile defense task, showing fNIRS may be useful for concurrent monitoring of the operator in such settings. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS • Functional near-infrared spectroscopy brain sensing is feasible for use in long duration (3 h) tasks. • Hemodynamic response was diminished during the middle of a long duration, low task load simulation when engagement and priming were lowest. • fNIRS did not detect a change in workload, but did reflect temporal changes in event onset, which could be used to automatically adapt a system when an operator is in a degraded attention state.