Individual differences in cardiorespiratory measures of mental workload: An investigation of negative affectivity and cognitive avoidant coping in pilot candidates

Mariel Grassmann, Elke Vlemincx, Andreas von Leupoldt, Omer Van den Bergh*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Cardiorespiratory measures provide useful information in addition to well-established self-report measures when monitoring operator capacity. The purpose of our study was to refine the assessment of operator load by considering individual differences in personality and their associations with cardiorespiratory activation. Physiological and self-report measures were analyzed in 115 pilot candidates at rest and while performing a multiple task covering perceptual speed, spatial orientation, and working memory. In the total sample and particularly in individuals with a general tendency to worry a lot, a cognitive avoidant coping style was associated with a smaller task-related increase in heart rate. Negative affectivity was found to moderate the association between cardiac and self-reported arousal. Given that physiological and self-report measures of mental workload are usually combined when evaluating operator load (e.g., in pilot selection and training), our findings suggest that integrating individual differences may reduce unexplained variance and increase the validity of workload assessments.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)274-282
Number of pages9
JournalApplied Ergonomics
Volume59
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Mar 2017
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Cardiorespiratory reactivity
  • Individual differences
  • Mental workload

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