Measuring surgeons' mental workload with a time-based secondary task

The use of secondary task performance to assess mental workload in a primary task is appealing because the method clearly reflects a central goal of workload assessment - to determine what other functions an operator can undertake while satisfactorily performing the ongoing (primary) technical challenges of a job. For example, does a surgeon performing a suturing task have the cognitive reserves to maintain situation awareness, deal with unanticipated events, or coordinate the efforts of other team members? Unfortunately, secondary task measures have a reputation for being intrusive, artificial, and difficult to use. In the current article, we describe procedures to minimize these concerns, specifically when using an interval production secondary task. Although our suggestions for implementing interval production are based on experience in surgical training environments, the method is grounded in workload assessment research from a variety of other contexts over the past two decades. The methodology appears to be highly adaptable.