Proceedings of the DoD Workload Assessment Workshop on Workload Assessment Techniques and Tools Held in Dayton Ohio on 27-28 September 1986.
Abstract
A major function of human factors engineering throughout the system development process is to ensure that system demands do not exceed the information processing capabilities of the human operator. Processing overload is a central factor leading to breakdowns in operator performance and to the compromises in system safety and effectiveness that can result from such decrements. Mental work is the term which refers to that portion of an operators limited processing capacity which is actually required to perform a particular task or system function. The principal objective of workload assessment is to specify the amount of expanded processing capacity so that existing or potential overloads can be identified and decrements in operator performance avoided. Because of its critical role in the system development process, workload assessment has been the subject of considerable research over the past 10 years (e.g., Moray 1979). One product of these research efforts has been the development and application of a large number of individual workload assessment techniques. A recent comprehensive review (Wierwille and Williges, 1978) of the workload assessment literature, for example, identified 28 different techniques that had been used to derive measures of load. A substantial number of these empirical assessment techniques, can be classified as belonging to one of three categories of workload measures: (1) subjective opinion procedures, (2) performance-based techniques, and (3) physiological techniques.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 15, 1987
- Accession Number
- ADA185650
Entities
People
- Heidi M. Fiedler
Organizations
- Naval Underwater Systems Center