TY - JOUR
T1 - Individual differences in cardiorespiratory measures of mental workload
T2 - An investigation of negative affectivity and cognitive avoidant coping in pilot candidates
AU - Grassmann, Mariel
AU - Vlemincx, Elke
AU - von Leupoldt, Andreas
AU - Van den Bergh, Omer
PY - 2017/3/1
Y1 - 2017/3/1
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Cardiorespiratory reactivity
KW - Individual differences
KW - Mental workload
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84991660664&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84991660664&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.apergo.2016.09.006
DO - 10.1016/j.apergo.2016.09.006
M3 - Article
C2 - 27890138
AN - SCOPUS:84991660664
SN - 0003-6870
VL - 59
SP - 274
EP - 282
JO - Applied Ergonomics
JF - Applied Ergonomics
ER -