Assessing Extraneous and Intrinsic Cognitive Load of Teleoperation: A Physiological-Performance Study with Cognitive Load Theory

Teleoperation is critical in high-risk environments such as space missions, where operators face substantial cognitive demands.Existing studies often assessoverall cognitive load (CL) without distinguishing between intrinsic (ICL) and extraneous (ECL) components. This study examinedphysiological-performance correlates of ICL and ECL during space robotic arm teleoperations. A 2 × 2 experiment manipulated task difficulty (high/low) and operation mode (joystick/key), while measuring CL via subjective scales, attention allocation, electroencephalography (EEG) and pupil diameter. Results revealed that higher task difficulty significantly increased ICL, whereas joystick control elevated ECL. EEG spectral changes in frontal and occipital regions and pupil diameter variations provided complementary physiological evidence, but these measures should be regarded as exploratory correlates rather than validated source-specific biomarkers. These findings suggest that multimodal monitoring may support teleoperation interface design and adaptive assistance, while further validation is needed before physiological measures can reliably distinguish ICL and ECL.