A characteristic of a navigator’s mental workload based on nasal Temperature

Abstract

A human skill is evaluated by a professional who has lots of experience and good sense. Quantitative evaluation comes from a performance and a questionnaire. Mental workload shows internal conditions and it is important for us to evaluate human skills, especially, intellectual performance. The physiological indices used to evaluate mental workload (decision-making effort). The heart rate variability (R-R interval) and the nasal temperature, are hopeful indices for the navigator based on our research. This paper proposes that the nasal temperature is an effective index to evaluate the mental workload of a navigator. The nasal temperature responds when the navigator makes a decision regarding ship-handling and collision avoidance, and shows well the whole trend of his decision-making.