Anticipating workload: Which facets of task difficulty are easiest to predict?

M. Sublette, C. M. Carswell, R. Grant, W. Seidelman, D. Clark, B. Seales

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Prospective workload measures are used to assess individuals' expectations about tasks they are facing, how difficult they think the tasks will be and how well they expect to perform. In this study, 43 participants used the NASA-TLX subjective workload scale to predict the difficulty of surgical training tasks. The goal of the study was to determine the accuracy of their predictions and whether the act of assessing tasks before performing them affected their judgments post-perforrnance. Regarding initial performance, results showed that participants formed prospective judgments that were consistent with their retrospective judgments, but they underestimated physical demands. After only minimal practice, however, their retrospective judgments deviated from both the experimental group's initial predictions and the control group's initial retrospective assessments. Anticipating mental demand was particularly challenging. No significant differences were found between the control and experimental conditions for post-performance assessments, suggesting that pre-performance assessment of workload has no effect of post-performance judgment of task difficulty.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication54th Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting 2010, HFES 2010
Pages1704-1708
Number of pages5
DOIs
StatePublished - 2010
Event54th Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting 2010, HFES 2010 - San Francisco, CA, United States
Duration: Sep 27 2010Oct 1 2010

Publication series

NameProceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
Volume3
ISSN (Print)1071-1813

Conference

Conference54th Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting 2010, HFES 2010
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySan Francisco, CA
Period9/27/1010/1/10

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Human Factors and Ergonomics

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