Workloads psychological

From the 1960s onward, there was a greater interest in psychological issues, dominated by the concept of the human as a single-channel processor of information. This stimulated research into a number of areas. Studies of mental workload were concerned with the ability of humans to cope with extremely high levels of information in situations such as air traffic control. Vigilance studies, which focused on the human s role in situations with very low levels of stimulation such as radar monitoring, represented the other extreme of human performance that was considered. 

Kushnir, T. and Melamed, S. (1991). Workload, perceived control and psychological distress in type A/B industrial workers. Journal of Organizational Behaviour 12 155-68. 

As a minimum, a 15-minute break from working should be taken after 2 hours of continuous computer work (CDC 1980 NIOSH 1981). Breaks should be more frequent as visual, muscular, and mental loads are high and as users complain of visual and musculoskeletal discomfort and psychological stress. With such intense, high-workload tasks, a work break of 10 minutes should be taken after 1 hour of continuous computer work. More frequent breaks for alternative work that does not pose demands similar to the primary computer work can be taken after 30 minutes of continuous computer work. Rest breaks provide an opportunity for recovery from local visual, musculoskeletal, and mental fatigue, to break from monotonous activities, or to engage in activities that provide variety in sensory, motor, and cognitive requirements. 

Hockey, G. R. (1997). Compensatory control in the regulation of human performance under stress and high workload A cognitive-energetical framework, Biological Psychology, 45, 73-93. 

Hohnsbein, J., Falkenstein, M., Hoormann, J. (1995). Effects of attention and time-pressure on P300 subcomponents and implications for mental workload leseatch. Biological Psychology, 40, 73-81. 

Metalis, S. A. (1991). Heart period as a useful index of pilot workload in commercial transport aircraft. The IntemationalJoumal of Aviation Psychology, 1, 107-116. 

Roscoe, A H. (1992). Assessing pilot workload. Why measure heart rate, HRV and respiration Biological Psychology, 34, 259 287. 

Most measures are sensitive to more than one psychological process. Most measures are not only affected by workload and effort, but also by stress, emotions,... 

One important topic for future research is the interaction or interplay between energetical mechanisms and psychological resources that comprise the construct of mental workload. Given that psychophysiological measures appear to reflect both general and specific aspects of workload, they provide a potentially ideal methodology with which to examine the control and deployment of... 

Brookings, J. B., Wilson, G. F., Swain, C. R. (1996). Psychophysiological responses to changes in workload during simulated air traffie control. Biological Psychology, 42, 361-377. 

Roscoe, A. H. (1993). Heart rate as a psychological measure for inflight workload assessment. Ergonomics, 36, 1055-1062. 

Veltman, J. A., Gaillard, A. W. K. (1996). Physiological indices of workload in a simulated flight task. Biological Psychology, 42, 323-342. 

Real-time assessment and feedback by reporting physiological changes to the sut ect either with or without information as to which changes actually occur. Concurrent assessment of variations in workload and task demands, performance, and psychological and physiological changes (events, episodes) ... 

Joma, P. G. A. M. (1992). Spectral analysis of heart rate and psychological state A review ofits validity as a workload index. Biotogfca/P.9rcAo/ogv, 34, 237-257. 

Myrtek, M., Brugner, G., Muller, W (1996b). Validation studies of emotional, mental, and physical workload components in the field. In J. Fahrenberg M. Myrtek (Eds.). Ambulatory assessment Computer-assisted psychological and psychophysiological methods in monitoring and field studies (pp. 287 304). Seattle Hogrefe Huber. 

In contrast, the correlation results provided mixed support for the validity of the PCA components. The within-task correlations indicated that only the parasympathetic component was valid (Table 7.4). However, the within-task correlations are not as important to the conclusions about the validity of the PCA components for the purpose of mental workload assessment as are the within-subject correlations. Because mental workload will typically be assessed within an individual (e.g., a pilot), the psychological-physiological relation need only hold within that individual. The correlation between the sympathetic component and PEP across subjects (within a task) is much less important than the correlation within subjects. Therefore, the correlation results support the validity of the PCA method when viewed fk>m the perspective of whether the PCA components would be valuable for mental workload assessment. 

Backs, R. W. (1995). Going beyond heart rate Modes of autonomic control in the cardiovascular assessment of mental workload. The International Journal of Aviation Psychology, 5, 25-48. 

Backs, R. W, Lenneman, J. K., Sicard, J. L. (1999). The use of autonomic components to improve cardiovascular assessment of mental workload in flight simulation. The IntemationalJoumal of Aviation Psychology, 9, 33 7. 

Backs, R. W, Wilson, G. F, Hankins, T C. (1995). Cardiovascular assessment of mental workload using autonomic components Laboratory and in-flight examples. In R. S. Jensen L. A. Rakovan (Eds.), Proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium on Aviation Psychology (pp. 875-880). Columbus The Ohio State University. 

As ergonomic improvements reduce the physical load at work, attention is drawn to aversive psychosocial aspects of the work environment. At the same time, the data reported earlier indicate that the influence of psychological stressors on muscular tension is enhanced in physical work. Thus, preventive actions must involve physical and psychosocial work conditions with special focus on women s stress and workload. The aim of our biopsychosocial approaeh is to provide data that might guide the design of sueh interventions. Finally, the biopsychosocial approach offers some sensitive health-related indicators that will prove useful in the evaluation of work environment intervention programs. 

In the estimation of this Workload, changing of air traffic controllers, psychological aspects and experience of air traffic controllers were not considered. Indeed, all these aspects can also influence the stress of the controllers and modify the values of the correspondent Workload. 

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