Subjective Workload Assessment Technique

Abstract

Abstract : Subjective assessment techniques are often employed in flight testing and operational test and evaluation. A thorough literature review of subjective measures revealed that precisely what we wanted does not currently exist. While subjective measures are frequently used in workload assessment, they usually are designed for a specific application. The measure we desire should be designed specifically to assess workload. Within the context of our battery this measure is conceived as being less precise than some of the other proposed measures (e.g. cortical evoked response) but should be precise and sensitive enough to quantify the existence of high workload. To develop SWAT we defined workload as being primarily composed of three dimensions: Time load, Mental effort load, and Psychological stress load. Refinement of the technique will continue as we gain experience in a wide variety of applications in order to provide a general workload measure. Data is being collected regarding SWATs sensitivity, validity and reliability in order to aid potential users apply the technique to their own specific application.