Workload Assessment: How to Diagnose Workload Issues and Enhance Performance (Users' Guides to Human Factors and Ergonomics Methods)

Workload assessment can be important wherever people perform under high levels of task demands, such as multitasking and time pressure. This accessible guide sets out a comprehensive, systematic approach to evaluating workload measures and to designing studies to maximize the value obtained from the measures.

No single volume in the current literature deals exclusively with workload assessments. In this book, you’ll find

• Basic concepts in both workload theory and applications in a variety of domains
• A comprehensive survey of leading self-report, performance-based, and psychophysiological measures
• A checklist to ensure assessment qualityTwo detailed workload examples to illustrate practical applications.

Workload Assessment has been written to be accessible to a wide audience and generally requires little specific background knowledge. This book will help guide researchers toward best practices in the use of workload measures to test theory-driven hypotheses in studies of cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Practitioners in domains such as surface transportation, aerospace, industrial ergonomics, the military, cybersecurity, system design, education, and health care will be able to choose the most appropriate workload measures for applied problems, and use workload data in efforts to mitigate performance issues. Workload Assessment is essential reading for graduate students in human factors and applied cognitive psychology, as well as supplementary reading for undergraduate students in these topics.

About the Authors

Gerald Matthews, PhD (University of Cambridge), is a research professor in the Institute for Simulation and Training, University of Central Florida. He previously held faculty positions at the University of Cincinnati, University of Dundee, and Aston University. His research centers on various human performance issues, including workload, stress, fatigue, and individual differences factors.

Lauren Reinerman-Jones, PhD (University of Cincinnati), is director of Prodigy, a lab at the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Simulation and Training. Her research focuses on assessment for explaining, predicting, and improving human performance and system design in a variety of domains including nuclear, human-robot teaming, training and education, medical, aviation, and cyber.