Physiological measurement of human performance: more than meets the eye

This poster highlights physiological measures that could be applied in rail to assess human performance. Physiological measures detect physical changes in the body such as heart rate. The poster maps out what is current in the... [ view full abstract ]

This poster highlights physiological measures that could be applied in rail to assess human performance. Physiological measures detect physical changes in the body such as heart rate. The poster maps out what is current in the world of physiological measurement, focused on measures that are sensitive to mental task load or cognitive performance. The poster is based on a literature review of recent studies from across industries including rail, aviation, automotive, marine and nuclear. This review forms part of the initial stages of a PhD investigating the impact of new technology on human performance in rail. It can be difficult to assess operator performance in roles such as driver or signaller, as the cognitive activity required for monitoring or decision making is not easily observable. There remains, however, a need to understand and measure operator performance to minimise the likelihood of human errors. Currently self-assessment measures are commonly used to assess mental or cognitive tasks. These measures are subjective and can require an interruption to the task such as a verbal report of workload on a scale. Advances in technology provide new opportunities to measure continuous, objective, physiological data to reflect cognitive activity. The poster introduces psychophysiological measures, describes what they measure, and how sensitive they are to mental task load, cognitive performance or subjective workload. The poster also considers the suitability of measures in each of these categories, and the feasibility of their application in rail. Specific measures include: heart rate, electrocardiography (ECG), galvanic skin response (GSR), skin temperature, breathing rate; blink rate; eye fixation time; electroencephalography (EEG), and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).