Cardiorespiratory Indices of Mental Workload during Simulated Air Traffic Control

27 university student participants (16 female) were trained on the TRACON video game and then practiced for 20 hrs. After practice, participants performed 3 mental workload conditions in a single session. Low, medium, and high mental workload scenarios were created by varying air traffic density: participants were required to handle 5, 10, or 15 aircraft within a scenario while cardiorespiratory, performance, and subjective mental workload data were collected. Heart rate change from baseline was faster during the high than during the low scenario. Pre-ejection period and high frequency heart rate variability indicated that the autonomic modes of control differed across scenarios: high and medium workload elicited significant reciprocally-coupled sympathetic activation and parasympathetic withdrawal, whereas low workload did not elicit significant change from baseline. Respiration rate change from baseline was faster during the high and medium scenarios than during the low scenario. Performance was significantly lower for the high than the low scenario. However, subjective workload increased significantly from the low to the medium to the high scenario.